Tag: peace

The Peace and Comfort Offered by Simple Obedience

Luke 19:42
If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

As Jesus weeped over Jerusalem, He spoke the words in Luke 19 to the Jews, who He knew would reject Him and His offer of salvation. Because they rejected His offer, He transferred His offer to the willing Gentiles.

This principle is carried out in a different way in our daily lives. Jesus prepares us to do His work and asks us to be obedient to His calling. Sometimes He will give us simple urgings in the spirit to do something nice for someone, to pray for someone, to forgive someone or to ask forgiveness from someone. Often His urging may be for a simple act to bring a smile upon the face of another. At other times, His bidding will have much more significant impact. Whatever He asks of us, if we accept His call, we will be given greater things to do for Him. We will experience the peace and comfort that flows from serving Him. If we do not accept His bidding, we will miss the peace He offers and we will miss a portion of the bigger plans that He has for our lives. Sadly, He will move on to find the one who is willing serve Him readily.

Let us not miss the satisfaction of living in the peace and comfort of the Lord. Let us eagerly accept and carry out any task, big or small, that the Lord is asking us to do. Let us discover how simple acts of obedience bring complete peace and comfort into our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to serve You. We rejoice in knowing that You are pleased when we are obedient to Your urging. We pray that You make us sensitive to the work that You call us to do. May we find joy in even the smallest tasks. May it all bring honor and glory to You, to Your Son and to the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of the One that gives us peace at all times and in every way, Jesus Christ.

Trusting in God for Everything

Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

It is easy to read Philippians 4:6 and come away with the simple thought that God encourages us and desires for us to bring Him our prayer requests. This interpretation is absolutely true. But when we break it down, we find that God is saying much, much more to us.

First, and foremost, we are being taught to be anxious in nothing. Does that make any sense? Surely we all have daily concerns and cares that we need to attend to as good stewards of our provisions, our relationships and our own spiritual condition. God is aware of these due concerns, but He is giving us the command to trust in Him. He knows our needs better than we know our needs. He is actually calling on us to have peace and comfort when the world would suggest otherwise.

After first resting in the comfort of His promise, then we are urged to go to Him in prayer with our requests. But there is a stipulation attached as He commands that we bring our thanksgiving in advance of our requests. Why does He ask us to come with thanksgiving? Again, it is for our peace and comfort. When we bring our thanksgiving, we are reconciling with Him all the favor and blessing that He has provided in the past. This positions us to approach His Throne with the confidence that everything we ask for will be addressed and answered perfectly according to our needs, our real needs.

If we are in line with the passage to this point, then our thankful, angst free mindset will help us to meet the last command in this passage which is to let our requests be known to God – not to men. This is a not so subtle reminder that it is not our job to manipulate our circumstances through our own capability. Instead we are to depend on Our Heavenly Father for everything in our lives. In exchange for following His supplication process, peace will be our companion.

Let us go to Him in thanksgiving, adoration and trust. Let us rest in His peace as we wait for His provision.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unconditional love and Your forgiveness through Your Son, Jesus. We ask forgiveness for coming to You so often with our needs alone, accompanied by a stark absence of our professed love for You and our expression of our sincere thanks for all that You provide. Teach us, Lord, how to seek Your presence in our lives. Teach us how to fully trust in You throughout each and every day. Teach us how to use our prayer lives to build our relationships with You. We ask all these things in the name of the One whose mercies and miracles never come to an end, Jesus Christ.

When We Lose Sense of the Promises of God through Jesus Christ

John 16:31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

The apostles spent three years with Jesus. Yet when He was ready to leave them, He had to take a lengthy amount of time explaining to them who He was. When He completed His explanation, He posed a question to them, “Do you now believe?”

Are we not just like the apostles? Even though we have spent years in prayer, years in the reading of the Word, years in worship and years in serving God, we manage to lose our sense of who Almighty God really is and the certainty of all the promises that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Sadly, as if Jesus Christ left the earth and left us to our own wiles, we turn toward the world for answers. We somehow find ourselves overlooking that our all-sufficient Lord provided us with a Wonderful Counselor who stands ready to supply our every need.

Let us be reminded that Jesus promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us and would comfort and guide us. To believe otherwise is to have a complete lack of faith. To believe otherwise is to deny what Jesus said He came to earth to do. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Let us take courage as Jesus commands us. Let us believe fully in the promises of Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the comfort and guidance that You provide through Your Holy Spirit. We bless the name of Jesus who came to earth so that we may have peace and we may overcome the tribulations of the world. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You. May we dig so deep that we never again turn to the world for counsel without having gone to You first. Help us, Lord, to believe for more than we can imagine is possible through our own efforts. Teach us how to wait on You for Your good and perfect timing in all things. We ask these things in the name of the One that is with us until the end of the age, Jesus Christ.

Preparing Ourselves to Receive and Share the Blessings God Has for Us

Ezekiel 34:26
And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing.

Everything on earth, whether man, beast or plant, is under the hand of Almighty God. Our all-sufficient Lord sends out everything required for sustenance and growth. And when the timing is right, He sends showers. When God is ready to spread His grace, be certain that you will not receive drops or droplets. You will receive showers, not a shower, but plentiful showers.

He will cause the showers to come down in season. His showers will fall upon us according to His divine will and timing for our lives. His showers will refresh us, revive us and make us fruitful unto His own purpose for our lives. And it will all be a part of His abundant grace which provides peace, rest, pardon, righteousness and eternal life for each of us.

And through His blessings on each of us in the Body of Christ, the world will receive showers of grace. But first, we must prepare ourselves to be worthy vessels and we must be alert to the onset of our seasons of grace. When our seasons arrive, we must be obedient to His calling on our lives. If we have made ourselves ready, we will receive the promised showers of favor on our lives.

Let us prepare ourselves for the God’s blessings by spending time with Him and spending dedicated time in His Word. Let us prepare ourselves through obedience to the urgings of the Holy Spirit. Let us become cisterns of His anointing showers and fountainheads for dispersing those showers of grace into the lives of others.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly come before You and thank You for Your abundant nature. We seek the wisdom to learn to wait on Your provision. We pray for the Holy Spirit to sharpen our awareness of the showers of grace that You pour upon us. We ask, Father, that You help us to prepare our ground so that we will bear much fruit when the showers arrive. We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us in becoming eager conduits of Your grace. We ask all these things in the name of Our All-Sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our Call to Holiness

Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

So what is this new life that we may live? As we struggle to attain a new sanctified life in Christ, we all come to know and experience that the promise for holiness is activated in our spirit, but is hampered by the weakness that remains in our flesh.

In the flesh, we are in a constant struggle to try to attain the holiness that we know has been set aside for us. The struggle is ongoing as we react to our call to holiness and attempt to adjust the way we live as new men and women in Christ. All along, we realize that we have been given the power to walk away from our old sin nature, but our flesh and our new spirit are in a battle. The flesh wants to keep us in the world. The Spirit wants to lead us on our path to sanctification. We find that there is no peace if we try to live in both worlds. We have to get off the proverbial fence to find victory.

Knowing our weaknesses all too well, in His perfect mercy and loving kindness, Our Father in heaven set aside a Helper for us to manage through our daily struggles. He gave us a Counselor to help us overcome the calling of our flesh and the world. We were given the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us and we were given God’s promise that He will perfect His strength in our weakness. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9

Let us call on the promise of Our Father in heaven. Let us rejoice in knowing that His grace is fully and perfectly sufficient to overcome our weaknesses. Let us strive to live new lives that are not conflicted by the world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfect plan and provision for us to overcome our sin natures. We praise the name of Jesus for sacrificing His life so that we can have victory over sin. We bless the name of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us to guide us and strengthen us. We pray, Lord, that You will show us how to end our struggle to balance our lives. May the Holy Spirit assist us and give us the strength to walk away from the world and commit everything in our lives to Jesus Christ, Our Savior. We ask all these things in in the name of our strength and our provision, Jesus Christ.

The Unique Skills That God Has Planned for Each of Us

1 Corinthians 9:16
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Not everyone is called in the same manner that Paul was called. It is certain, in fact, that most of us were not called to stand in the pulpit to preach the gospel. It is just as certain, however, that every one of us has been called to live the gospel and to serve our Master by being good stewards of His presence in our lives.

There will be no peace in our hearts if we take a direction other than the one the Lord set aside for us. Just as Paul was compelled to preach, we are compelled to proclaim the gospel through our obedient response to Our Lord’s calling on our lives. To neglect the calling of God on our lives shows contempt for the divine will of the Father and opens us up to the torment of a wounded conscience.

If we are gifted with a beautiful singing voice, we should be considering how to use it for God’s glory. If we are gifted with organizational skills, we should be considering how to use those skills to help with the administration of the church or perhaps a ministry. If we have been given teaching skills, we should consider leading bible studies or other studies needed in the community. The list goes on and on. There are no skills that cannot be used by God for the advance of His kingdom. We should search for guidance from the Holy Spirit to find out the skill or skills that God has planned uniquely for each of us. If we neglect the calling that God has placed on our lives, we may not face His wrath, but we are likely to lose the gifts that He has blessed us with.

Let us make certain that we are not neglecting the skills that we have been given. Yet, let us lean not on our own perception of our skills when we seek to serve God. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us discover the unique skills that God has prepared for each of us. Let us be surprised by our new abilities and improved capabilities when we enter into a covenant relationship with Our Savior.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us unique skills so that we can be vital parts of the Body of Christ. We pray that You will help us discover and develop our identity in Christ. May Your Holy Spirit guide us and train us in our calling. May we find peace of mind and great satisfaction in our service to Your Kingdom. May we be good stewards of Your presence in our lives. We ask these things in the name of the Head over all things, Jesus Christ.

Confirming the Divine Truth of Who God Is

John 8:19
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

During the time of Jesus, the collaboration of one or more witnesses was required to establish the truth in any matter. The Pharisees were taunting Jesus, insinuating that He had no witness to the truth that He was the Son of God. They were blindly calling for a testimony in the flesh to confirm a divine truth.

With pity and patience, Jesus convicted them of their own shortcoming. He pointed out to them that He was all the proof that they needed that He was the Son of God. He emphasized that if they could not see that He was who He said He was, they would never know His Father. This was a claim that enraged the self-righteous Pharisees.

If we try to have head knowledge of who God is and define our relationship with Him without a relationship with His Son, we will end up in the same place as the Pharisees. If we try to use our own logic and the testimony of what the world offers to determine our relationship with Almighty God, we will miss out entirely on having an intimate relationship with Our Creator.

Fortunately, Our Creator is completely aware of our weakness. Through His grace, His loving kindness and His mercy, He provides the Holy Spirit to leads us into an intimate relationship with His Son, Our Savior. If we follow the supernatural guidance and urgings of the Holy Spirit and surrender completely to a relationship with Jesus Christ, we will experience the unimaginable peace and joy of an eternal relationship with the Father and the Son.

Let us quit trying to define God by our own logic. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us dig deeply into our relationship with Our Creator. Let us truly discover who God is by developing an intimate relationship with His Son.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to know You through Your Son, Jesus. May we learn to reject the need to define You and our relationship with You by the world’s standards. We pray that our minds will be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we will come to know you intimately through our relationship with Your Son. We ask all these things in the name of the brightness of Your glory, Jesus Christ.

The Birth of Christ Was Perfectly Timed

Galatians 4:4
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was born when He was? Mankind certainly could have benefitted from His arrival at any point in time. So why was He born exactly when He was born?

Consider that Jesus was born at a time when the whole world spoke and understood one language. The Greek language, which had been mandated during time of Alexander the Great, remained the prevalent language spoken throughout all of Rome’s conquered territories. The early evangelists could travel to any point in the Roman Empire, deliver their message in Greek and know that their message would be understood.

Because the Romans had built a massive road system unlike anything the world had ever known, travel was relatively easy. The early evangelists were able to get to any major population group within the Roman Empire. To add to the ease of travel, unlike most other time periods before Christ’s arrival, the Roman Empire quieted the warring factions. Worldwide peace was established for over 200 years. During this time frame, Roman centuries were posted along the major roadways to insure that there was no impediment to safe travel within the conquered territories.

As a final element of God’s perfectly timed plan, we find that the Jews had been dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. Even though there was no longer a central temple for the Jews, there were active synagogues built throughout the Roman territory. These synagogues were attended regularly. They made for easy access points to disseminate the Good News of the Gospel throughout the land.

With all these factors coinciding perfectly, it is remarkable how ideal the circumstances were for the rapid spread of the story of Jesus and His salvation message for all of mankind. And it was all in perfect accordance with the many prophecies that were fulfilled to the letter. The arrival of Our Savior was not only perfectly timed, it was a confirmation of the infallible nature of the Word of God.

Let us consider in awe that Almighty God was just as purposeful in selecting our time on this earth as He was in selecting the time for His Son. Let us recognize that we were all created for this exact time and place in the history of mankind. Let us rejoice in knowing that Our Father in heaven has a specific plan for our lives on this earth and with Him for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the miraculous birth of Your Son, Jesus. We thank You for giving each of us the gift of life. We rejoice in knowing that You created each of us with a sovereign, gracious purpose for our lives. We bless the name of Jesus who shed His blood so that we may be worthy to do the things that You have created us to do. We exalt the Holy Spirit for standing by us so that we may overcome our weaknesses. We pray for the strength to persevere in pursuing Your will for our lives and not our own. May the fruit of our efforts be our gifts back to you this Christmas season and all the days of our lives. We ask all these things in the name of Your dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Finding Peace, Power and Strength During Times of Trouble

Isaiah 40:29
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

With so much going on around us that we are troubled by, but have no control over, it is easy to become frustrated at our station in life. With so much evil in the world today, it is very easy to become despondent and depressed. But how is this so?

How is it that we do not now trust in that which has been recorded throughout history and is prepared for our understanding in God’s Holy Word? How have we missed being enlightened to the ways in which Almighty God has been forever with us when we have the experiences of good men through their own observation and the God-inspired writings of His apostles and His prophets to instruct us? How have we not learned that the Maker and Former of all things, who upholds, governs and judges all that is under His kingdom, never tires of providing for and protecting the creatures that He created for His own glory? Why do we continue with our foolish frets and fears and not find peace in the storm when the One who vanquishes all that comes against us is always with us?

We should not be surprised at our weakness or lack of understanding. God was perfectly aware that we were not capable on our own to cope with the torments of our own flesh and the attacks of the enemy. Through His immeasurable grace He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within us. For those that He knew were weak, He provided all the strength required for victory.

Let us gather up our strength in the Lord when we are challenged by the enemy. Let us seek His might when we are being overwhelmed by the world and tormented by our own flesh. Let us rest on His promises as we claim our victories over our troubles.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to overcome this world. We bless the name of Jesus who died on the cross so that we might have victory over all evil. We rejoice in knowing that Your Holy Spirit is always with us to provide peace, comfort and strength through all trials. Father, we pray that our hearts and minds are put to rest with the certainty of Your presence and Your promises. May those around us be comforted by the peace that they see in our lives during times of trouble. We ask all these things in the name of our ever-present Lord, Jesus Christ.

Joyfully Looking Forward to Sharing God’s Glory

Romans 5:2
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

One of the greatest gifts that we receive through faith is the ability to approach our death beds with peace and joy, not with fear and trembling. Through our faith, we know that at our death we will be set free of every pain and challenge that life has brought to us. Through our faith we know that we will spend eternity in the presence of Almighty God and we will be worthy to be there. Through our faith, we know that what awaits us in heaven is beyond our imagination.

This kind of faith is actually worked out in us on this earth. This kind of faith by its nature must be tried. This kind of faith is built up through all of the trials that we face seemingly alone. This kind of faith is built up when we realize we were never alone. We know we have this kind of faith when we can approach every trial in our lives with boldness, courage and confidence knowing that Jesus is always right beside us to carry us through.

Let us live every day confidently, knowing that we are not alone. Let us approach every trial with boldness, knowing that Our Strength is always with us. Let us rejoice, knowing that our place in heaven with Almighty God is prepared for our arrival.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the faith that brought us to receive Your Son, Jesus, as Our Savior. We thank You for the faith to believe in Your Holy Word and reject all that contradicts it. We praise the name of Jesus for standing by us as we enjoy all the blessings that You bring us and as we endure all the trials that life throws at us. We pray, Father, for the grace and the strength to live every day of our lives in the conscious delight of who we are in Christ. We ask all these things in the name of our joy triumphant, Jesus Christ.