"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." -Jesus
I don't know what the future holds for me- Neither
short-term nor long-term. I have committed to live off of faith and not regular paychecks. I have a ton
of tedious homework to complete over the weekend for CSBS. I am in country
whose language I do not speak well. I am away from everything familiar...
Yet, from the first day I arrived here to this very moment I
feel like I am home. And though the homework itself is tedious I am being challenged to examine the Bible in different ways, and the results have been amazingly instant.
For I have already begun to receive the Word into my heart in ways I had not before.I am in a place of rest and peace. I know this peace does not
come from material things- Those things will never be completely resolved-in my thoughts. But this peace comes from
knowing that whatever happens, however this all turns out, God is with me. I am
never alone. I am never forsaken. I am covered by His blood and wrapped in His
grace. And I have confidence that even my struggles and afflictions will be
glorified though Him.
I began to realize last year what the Apostle Paul really meant when he described peace. I could not grasp God's peace in my own life. How did he grasp it in prison? He knew, as the Lord is bringing me into a place to know, that God's peace does not mean the absent of pain and suffering. But it is an everlasting assurance that the Lord will be with you and carry you through it.
Material possessions, money, good health, fun, family, friends, teachers, and even nature can be a passing thing. We gain and we lose. Beautiful landscapes can be destroyed. Our health and bodies can fail. But our hope is not based upon these things. Our hope is that our Lord is faithful in all His promises, and that He will never abandon His children. This hope results in perfect peace. This peace continues on during both good and bad days, during easy times and throughout the storms of life. This is the peace the Lord desires for all His children to understand, because if we are able to grasp this one single concept we will not only be able to get through all that happens to us, but we will also rise above it, and we will not miss out on all that He has for us.
You are being renewed in the spirit of your mind. [So that you], being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth
of God's love, and to know the Messiah's love that surpasses knowledge, so you
may be filled with all the fullness of God. [Therefore] rejoice in your
afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance
produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does
not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through
the Holy Spirit Who was given to us. [And] neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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