Saturday, April 18, 2015

Not in Others/Ourselves: Peace Comes from Hope in Christ

We never grow if our peace is based on what someone else tells why we have nothing to worry about.

There was this chronic attack in my mind, that I had to have feelings, proof, something that would tangible inform  me or quiet my mind.

That is never the case.

I kept thinking that I had to feel good, to feel at peace in my mind in order to know that God was OK with he.

I look at this verse yet again, for Jesus is inexhaustible, much like His Word!

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)

Yet for the longest time, I felt that I was responsible for keeping myself in peace!

That is not the case at all!

We are called to trust in Him, to believe all things from Him:

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)

and

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." (1 Corinthians 2: 12)

and

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)

He grants us peace. We do not give it to ourselves, nor do we seek it from other people:

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14: 27)

We do not find peace in the simple, limited assurances of men. We have a confident expectation of good because of Jesus:

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1:27)

and

"1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5: 1-5)

Forget dependence on men.

"5Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
 
"6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." (Jeremiahs 17: 5-6)
 
There is no greater bitterness than trying to find peace, being emotional dependent on other people.
 
But -- our hope, our rest, our trust we find in Christ!
 
"7Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." (Jeremiah 17: 7)

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