The Perfect Peace of Christ

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

The revelation of God's love for me just gets richer and richer.

He is ever-present, going nowhere. His life and presence in and around me has nothing to do with me.

It has everything to do with Christ Jesus, and what He accomplished at the Cross.

The New Covenant which He enacted ensures that nothing will separate me from the Love of God the Father.

Nothing.

"37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)

and

"5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)

The days of depending on my own efforts are over.

I no longer have to wonder if God is on my side or not.

Paul the Apostle really could not have made it any clearer:

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

That "if" is a mere supposition which lays the groundwork for everything else that Paul expounds upon.

He is for us, because of what Jesus did for us at the Cross.

Paul continues:
"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 8:32)

We must esteem what Christ Jesus did for us at the Cross. If we do not esteem His sacrifice, then every other promise which God our Father has made for us is tenuous at best.

"33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." (Romans 8:33)

It does not matter what the world throws at us. It does not matter what anyone says about us. It makes no difference what anyone has to say about us. No matter how great or small the person may be, it is GOD who justifies us!

"34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:34)

Jesus intercedes on our behalf at the right hand of God the Father, and no one can undermine us. No one can undermine our perfect standing.

What is different, what is changing for me today, after all those years of reading and remembering those verses, is that God is now clearly so present to me. For the longest time, I used to think that I had to conjure up His presence in my life. Today, I recognize Him as stark, alive, vibrant, loving, inescapable for all of His beauty.

He's alive, and He cares for us. He is at work, and He asks us to rest in Him.

All of this is so new, so vibrant, so wonderful to me. He asks us to believe Him. He asks us to look at Him, not at ourselves, not at our circumstances, not at our adversaries, not at our circumstances. Look at Him, and see Him who has been from the beginning!

Thank you, Jesus!

You Have Taught Me What To Do With Fear

Over the last week, I have dealt with an interesting set of new challenges.

I find that many people were running to me with a number of fears, a number of concerns, and they were coming at me in repeated fashion.

People were sharing their upsets, their concerns at great length, and I found so much of it simply tiresome.

There have been currents of winds and rains against me.

I see why faith is so important, in that we look at Jesus, not ourselves, not our circumstances.

I have been through some interesting trials in the last few days, but it's OK.

I know that Jesus, my Redeemer, lives and makes intercession for me.

When I felt upset or worried, I used to run to someone else.

Today, I recognize that I can simply put my trust in You.

Jesus is there! He is not "somewhere else" at all!

He promised it!

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)

And what does Peter advise to fellow believers?

"6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

For the longest time, I would "just cast my care" by saying something,

Today, I recognize that Jesus is ever present. I recognize that my loving Father. It's easy to cast my cares on you!

When I am worried, the answer is not to allay other people's fears. It's not OK for me to cast my cares on someone else. It's all about casting my cares on you!

Just go to you! Just go to the LORD! When I struggle with fears, the answer is to keep looking at Jesus!

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)

AMEN!

Resting More In His Never-Ending Favor and Presence

This revelation is so powerful, much like understanding how God my loving Father still loves me, no matter what I am feeling or thinking.

For the longest time, I used to believe that God's presence depended on me in some way.

I used to think that God's love for me, as a strong, present affirmation, depended on what I was thinking, what I was feeling.

I never recognized Him as the acting, loving Father that He is.

Many people in the Body of Christ have declared that such sentiments are dangerous.

"If you tell people that they have the unconditional love of the Father, then they will go out and live like sin!"

I can attest in my own life that because I understood how deep, rich, passionate, and feeling God's love is in my life, so many sinful behaviors and bad thoughts have fallen away.

Paul writes to the Romans:

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Romans 2:4)

Paul's letter announces the fullness of what the Grace of God does for us!

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

Grace brings salvation.

Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and the lusts of the flesh, the eye, and the pride of life.

Grace teaches us to live righteously in this world!

Grace causes us to look for God's blessed hope and the reappearing of Christ Jesus!

Jesus does not go away. In fact, He has been on the job from the very beginning. He was always there for me, even if I did not understand, even if my faith was weak since I did not understand God's Word enough, nor had I learned to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

The summary of this revelation:

It is not my job to make God present to me in my life. He has made it His job to serve me:

"For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

Thank you, Jesus, for your love! Thank you, Father God, for Your Son and sending Him to us!

He Is A God to Me, Because He Has Forgiven Me of All of My Sins

I used to wonder if God was on my side.

I wondered, not sure if God was going to come through for me or not.

This lack of faith was quite disconcerting for me, I must say.

For the longest time, I used to believe that God was present to me only if I was thinking about Him.

But that is not how it works.

He is a God to me because of what His Son accomplished at the Cross.

God is for us not because of anything that we have done, but because of everything that He has accomplished at the Cross.

Consider the elements of the New Covenant:

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

WHhy is God a God for us?

It's all in verse 12?

"I will be merciful (more accurately, propitious) to your unrighteousness, and your sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

God has put away all our sins, and He did this through Christ Jesus!

For the longest time, I was convinced that God's presence in my life depended on my feelings, depended on my thoughts.

I had to feel a certain way, or I had to make sure that I was thinking about God all the time. It's insane that I had such overwhelming destructive thought processes, but that's the torture and pain that I went through.

Today, I recognize, I see Jesus, alive and full of love for me. I see God my Father, alive and full of love for me. I recognize today that He has been actively caring for me, caring about me all this time.

I so limited God. I did not see how rich, how good, how wonderful He is.

Jesus, thank you for the love that you have for me. Thank you, Father, that You are a God to me! Thank you that you have always been there for me, no matter what is happening. I cannot thank you enough.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

This "if" is not a conditional "if" based on something that we must do. It's a statement from one logical affirmation to the next.

God is for us! Therefore, who can be against us?