PEACE WITH GOD

Scripture for the day: John 14:27; Romans 5:1“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”…. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Thought for the day: Peace with God. What a concept that is for our minds to grasp. The war is over, arms have been laid down, hostility has been abandoned and we are now enlisted in the army we so adamantly fought against just moments before. But how has this peace been won?

Well, if we understood it from the world's point of view it might go something like this. First we would need to justify our position before a watching world. That is, we'd first list all the reasons why we shouldn't surrender and why we were justified in doing what we'd been doing for so long. Public opinion is very important in peace negotiations, you know. Next we'd sit down at the bargaining table, having carefully negotiated the size, shape, color and seating arrangement of the table, assuming we'd been able to agree on what country, city and building the table would be located in. Tables are apparently very important to making peace.

The next step might be to exchange peace proposals. Ours might look like this: We propose peace on the grounds that we've really not done anything worthy of punishment and we've not been as bad as our neighbors and we've not really hurt anyone but ourselves and we've never really understood sin and death and hell in the first place and we've done a lot of good over the years and we've tried to be nice to the dog and so on and so on. God's peace proposal might look something like this: Surrender is to be complete and unconditional. Well, it looks like there's a lot of negotiating to do.

We say: "Look at all I've done."

Jesus says: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

We say: "But I don't deserve death!"

Jesus says: "The wages of sin is death."

We say: "We'll work harder at being good."

Jesus says: "There is no one righteous, no not one."

We say: "There must be another way."

Jesus says: "No man cometh unto the Farther but by Me."

We say: "What must I do to be saved?"

Jesus says: "Believe on the One whom the Father has sent."

We say: "I give up!"

Jesus says: "Welcome home."

And there is peace. There is not only the cessation of hostilities, there is also a sense of well-being and peace with God that overtakes the Christian such as the world can neither negotiate nor understand. What quietness! What calmness! What serenity! What peace is in our souls when we've surrendered completely and unconditionally to our Creator. Not as the world gives, but as Jesus Christ alone can give through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, there is peace. It isn't negotiated, evolved or developed; it is a gift of God to all those who accept His provision of it.

Is there peace in your life today? I'm not speaking of the lack of difficulties. That's not real peace. I'm not even speaking of a lack of hostilities between you and your neighbors. Jesus never promised us either of those kinds of peace. I'm speaking of a lack of conflict within the deepest recesses of the soul, conflict that can only end with complete surrender to God and a peace that is not dependent on external circumstances. Is there that kind of peace with you today? If there is then you can truly....

Go take on your world. - Bill