Peace

Peace cannot come from the world. Happiness, which is fleeting, comes from the world, but peace must come from our relationship with our Creator- the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no true peace without God’s direction. Only He can guide our lives and those in our family in order to have it fluidly work with all that He feels is necessary.

God knows all of our responsibilities, and all the people that are dependent on us. When we read Scripture, God can lead us and if we follow this leading we will find that His way leads to a perfect balance with enough time to love others. If anything in our life is lacking in love, our peace will be lacking as well.

Life is full of goodness when we follow our Creator’s path. Life is based on luck when we choose to ignore it. A choice opposed to God, is a choice for lack of peace (at best) and death (at worst). The Bible teaches that there are only two options in life: choices that uphold life and choices that cause things to die: relationships, vibrancy, peace, contentment and everything that is good.

When we make choices without consulting God- and we all do- we will encounter confusion, heartache, loss of peace and joy as well as a lack of physical vibrancy.

The first couple- Adam and Eve were placed in a beautiful garden with everything they and future generations would need. Their job was to take control of the earth to reign over it like a king and queen. They were told to fill the earth with children and use the authority God gave them to bring the earth under control.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Reign over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”(Gen 1:27-28)

Free To Choose

In order for Adam and Eve to be free they had to have a choice- enjoy everything except the fruit from the tree of good and evil. They could have made the choice to listen to God’s voice, but we all know how the story ends. If God forced obedience on them, it would be as if the first couple were simply robots. A robot can do many things except love- God’s primary purpose for our life.

Jesus stated: ” I have come so that you may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Likewise, we were given the opportunity to love Him, yet freedom was necessary- it was our choice to believe in Him, listen to His teachings and thus love Him. If we allow Him to be our Lord, we are truly loving Him. The result of following the Lord is more peace and a better understanding of the profound and supernatural blessings in the Bible.

“Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”(John 14:21)

Forced love is an oxymoron. Therefore, God allows all of us to choose how close we are to Him and whether or not we choose to be obedient to His teachings which He equates as love.

“If you love me you will keep my Commandments. And I will ask my Father and He will give you another advocate to be with you forever.”(John 14:15-16)

In other words, when we give God the ascendancy over our choices rather than our feelings/ intellect we are putting God in the position of Lord of our lives. We are going to Him for guidance and direction. In doing this God will reveal His ways to us so we can follow them and stay on the best path in life.

If we choose to follow the Lord, it will indeed require faith, because many of God’s ways are in direct contradiction to the way most people live in the world.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:9)

God’s Peace Is Obtainable

We have to fight for the peace of Christ, and it is a daily fight.

There is a battle ensuing in the world and it’s a battle for our soul. Satan may not get our soul in eternity because we believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but Satan can make our life a hell on earth. He will go after everything in our life: family, relationships, career, health, our ministry and our choices- attempting to get you to shrink back in life and be fearful. The Christ followers are definitely targeted – anyone trying to increase the Kingdom of God and bring others into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ is on Satan’s radar.

But we know that the battle was won at the Cross. Jesus beat the powers of hell and therefore if we are “In Christ” we too must stand on the promises of God for our life and we will eventually overcome our troubles. Those that don’t follow Christ have only luck on their side. The only way to battle our enemy is to build up our faith through Bible study. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

In doing this we will have an inner knowing that God can’t lie and He will deliver us through all the enemy throws at us as we stay in faith. The Lord is truly a perfect Shepherd, and we can trust His leading in our lives.

Food For Thought,

Lisa

This is a link to my favorite Bible with excellent teaching points. Click here.