Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
The LORD gives perfect peace…
The Bible is a record of not only past defeats and past victories of countries but also personal defeats and victories. Over and over the scriptures attributes the agony of defeat because God withdrew his support because of sins or because of a “we can do it ourselves and don’t need God’s help”. Today’s scripture attributes the victories won to God’s support. “Their strength and weapons were not what won the land and gave them victory! You loved them and fought with your powerful arm and your shining glory.” (Psalm 44:3, CEV)
One of the greatest struggles “on our plate” as Christians is how are we to understand and work for peace in a world and lives where conflicts of varying kinds run out of control. While I am not 100% sure I suspect there’s not one person alive who have not at one time or another had their lives turned upside down by some form of conflict. And because of the world we live in and the life we live in the world because there are yet battles to be fought we are unable to say we’ve won. However, having said that we have this assurance, “You loved them and fought with your powerful arm and your shining glory.”
Isaiah writes, “The Lord gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm. So always trust the Lord because he is forever our mighty rock.” (Isaiah 26:3–4, CEV) Notice the relationship of “perfect peace” and faith. I understand peace not as the absence of conflict but the presence of Jesus. When I think about my own life with its past defeats and victories, my present battles, and those that yet await me I understand my need to keep myself “turned on” to Jesus. The peace I need to experience in my conflicts is a shared responsibility and not totally dependent upon Jesus.
Life has taught me (and continues to teach me) when our belief in God empowers our trust in God we are enabled to step out in faith into the mainstream of life with all its inherent conflict and the presence of Jesus will suppress our anxiety and we will experience perfect peace. “The Lord gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm. So always trust the Lord because he is forever our mighty rock.” (Isaiah 26:3–4, CEV)
Believe! Anticipate! Experience! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
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The LORD gives strength to those who are weary… But those who trust the LORD will find new strength…” (Isaiah 40:29, 31 CEV)
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Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.
Scriptures marked CEV, “Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.”
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