Welcome to the blog series, Heading Home Together — a series of guest posts on themes relating to home, eternity, longing, and belonging as we lead up to the launch of my memoir, A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging (affiliate link).

Today it’s my privilege to welcome author and speaker Del Bates with a guest post on unspeakable joy.

Be sure to read more about Del in her bio below, and be encouraged by her words!

 ^“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Luke 1:41

Do you love to travel? Do you dream about visiting exotic places then question what it’ll take to get you there? Or could traveling be a mandate of your job and the excitement becomes mundane?

My husband and I travel twice a year. Since we are snowbirds, we make our three-day road trip back and forth from Florida to Michigan the same as the birds who fly south to dodge the cold and return north to escape the nasty heat.

For me, Florida will always be my part-time residence, Michigan will still be home. As we head north for the summer and whiz through the states one by one, my heart leaps with a quiet, unexplainable joy as our tires cross over the threshold into Michigan.

I can recall a story in the Bible where an unborn child leaped in the same way. When Mary, the mother of Jesus, walked into the home of her cousin Elizabeth, the baby leaped in her womb. No words were spoken, no profound announcement proclaimed, just the very presence of the Spirit of Jesus entering in touched the soul of the unborn child.

We are blessed to be able to feel that same joy as Elizabeth when we draw closer to our Lord. As we travel from problem to problem and bask in the worries of the day, peace seems inevitable. But is it? When we realize we can take those concerns and fears to the Lord, we will discover an unexplainable peace our soul has searched to find.

How do you do that, you ask? It’s simple. Just begin to talk to God as you would to me, or to a friend. Tell Him all that’s on your mind. Confess to Him where you are in life and how badly you need His help. Then take a deep breath and wait. Close your eyes and wait for Him and His peace to overshadow you.

Will you be able to understand that peace that will come upon you? No, not really. But just as Elizabeth could not explain nor understand what was happening to her, she allowed it to happen. And by submitting to what the Spirit was doing within her, she proclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” (Luke 1:42)

Elizabeth opened her home to her cousin Mary along with the Spirit of God. When we come to the end of ourselves and thus open the home of our heart to the Spirit of God, He will be free to enter in and take residence there.

And beloved, just as when I crossed the threshold into Michigan and my spirit leaped within, yours will do the same as you go forth and begin your new journey home with Him.

Prayer for the day: Dear Jesus, I have tried for so long to do things on my own. Help me to open my heart to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and begin to guide me on this journey called life. Amen.

Del Bates is an author and a speaker. She is the president for the chapter of Treasure Coast Word Weavers in Vero Beach. She also is sits on the area Board for the South- East Area of Aglow Int. in Florida and resides as the president of her chapter, Vero Beach Aglow.

She has self-published a 40-Day Devotional Book ~ Daily Seeds/ Seeds of Grace, where you can find this devotional and many more. Del also has numerous stories in various anthologies and recently won an award at the Florida Christian Writers Conference in the Children Story Book category.

She and her husband are snowbirds. Florida in the winter, and Michigan in the summer where she enjoys her three grown children, their families and their five precious grandbabies.

Visit her at www.Delbates.com

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  This post is part of the Heading Home Together blog series.

To read more posts in this series, click here. 

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