It is my earnest prayer that God would grant you perfect peace on every side in Jesus name. Amen!
Peace is one element that money cannot buy. It is priceless and only those who once had it but lost it can better appreciate its real worth. We truly may not know the value of the peace that God freely gives until we have wandered in some desert and tortuous places of the earth. It is common to see people treat very lightly and thus forfeit the peace that God gives. That the peace of God comes freely to us doesn’t in any way mean that it came without a price. We have it free because someone paid the price for it.
Christ Himself is our peace; it is him who has broken down the middle wall of partition (Ephesians 2:14). We have peace only because God is at peace with us. Often, we get things wrong and all muddled up. We are troubled not because we have troubles; we are troubled because we have lost God in our determined pursuit of other things. We get overwhelmed when our hearts move away from the Creator. What we sense as an inward disturbance is the signal that our heart has missed the orbit along which it ought to revolve. We can’t stay in God and be troubled; much the same way that we can’t be in the middle of the sea and remain dry. In God is the fullness of life and the most vital part of that life is the peace we have in Him.
Sadly, this is a generation in contradiction; a generation that so badly need peace and yet teaches her children to turn their back on the Prince of peace. Wisdom should instruct us, and correctly so, that there is no short cut to peace.
Knowing peace is knowing God; and to neglect to hear Him is to be face to face with trouble.
We may have everything and still be troubled, but never when our purpose is firmly rooted in God. When we finally find that purpose for which we were created and are willing to live in it, our lives takes on a harmony that words cannot describe.
God is offering us perfect peace. And the path to that peace begins with aligning ourselves to the divine purpose. We must take deliberate steps away from the stubbornness of our hearts and decisively pursue that purpose for which God sent us here. Finding God is finding purpose; and underneath the wings of the divine purpose lies our peace. Succinctly put, when we submit to God and His will for our lives, what we get in return is the peace that goes beyond comprehension (Philippians 4:6-7).
Anxiety steals away from our peace and we gain nothing by fretting. Jesus specifically requested us to not worry over anything (Matthew 6:25-34). This doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be issues tempting us to worry over them; it only means we need to constantly grow our capacity and discipline to not worry.
This is a lifestyle that is totally alien to many. But the truth remains that there is nothing we worry about that we would not get troubled over; and there is nothing we wholly put in the hands of God that we would not find peace over.
Keeping the right focus and keeping our hearts fixed on God is the surest path to peace and endless joy; and those who truly have come to know the worth of this peace that is beyond comprehension would never want to let go of it.
Remain Blessed,
Pastor Jerry Orhue
Senior Pastor, Gracevine Chapel
www.gracevinechapel.org
