Where Does Our Peace Lie?

 

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15:13

Circumstances will always be swirling around us, frustrations and imperfections will be abundant in daily life. While we live our earthly lives, they will never be perfect. Yet, when we know the One who is perfect, who resides in our hearts, who has already triumphed to give us eternal life, we can know peace. We can know peace because we know Jesus, who is peace. Jesus loved us enough to understand our weary and worried hearts, and He brought peace through his sacrifice. Not peace on earth, but peace to our hearts, and eternal peace once we enter the gates of heaven.

So many Christians are as worried as people of the world; we are trembling in fear and trepidation, as if we have never met the God who saves, who will triumph, who is all powerful and is peace. Our eyes are fixed on the troubled world, and not on the God who loves us and gives us eternal life. We have to fix the eyes of our hearts on heaven, and on Jesus who guides us in His ways of life and peace. Peace in our hearts and minds; because the world will never offer peace. We are not permanent residents of earth, but temporary tent dwellers. Our permanent, perfect, and peaceful home is in heaven. Our earthly homes are merely flimsy tents to house us on a pilgrimage, our unshakable and eternal home is with God.

People need to see others who aren't tossed and crashed onto the rocks by every strong wave that hits them, people who have peace and life about them even when their outer surroundings are seen as imperfect by the world. A love and peace radiating from us is what the world needs, as Jesus' hands and feet we must be sure to truly know the One who gives us this peace in a troubled world.

May we take our eyes off of the world and it's troubles, and fix them one the only One who matters. While our eyes and hearts are fixed on the temporal and troubled, we will waste a life never knowing the love and peace of our Savior. When we fix them on God and who He is, study His word and His truth and make it a deep part of our soul, our very being, we know peace, and we truly know Jesus for who He is.

"But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." Hebrews 11:16

"For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:14

"For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 5:1

Prayer: "Lord, take away the blindness of my eyes on earth so that I may see your peace and that it will reign in my heart. No matter what surrounds me, give me the unshakable foundation of your word and your peace. Show me how to take my eyes off of what doesn't matter, and to fix them on you." Amen.

“There is nothing dreary or doubtful about life. It is meant to be continually joyful...We are called to a settled happiness in the Lord whose joy is our strength.”-Amy Carmichael

"We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”  -A.W. Tozer "The Pursuit of God"

“If we were less of what seems like ease in our lives they would tell more for Christ and souls...We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.”-Amy Carmichael