Peace Day 2

Peace has so many different meanings on many different levels. Peace on the highest level is trusting the Lord for the salvation of our souls. However, the everyday peace of mind we need seems some times harder to hold on to or even realize at times. Our life struggles are so difficult to sort out. We are all faced with problems. Many as a result of sin, but often times adversity seems to come from nowhere. These are the most difficult of situations to find peace in because of our carnal nature. I use the term "carnal nature" because it is natural for us to equate peace, happiness, and wealth with righteousness. Many preach this 'health wealth' doctrine. This sort of teaching is not limited to the "Plant a seed of faith, send me money and things will go well with you". We are also bombarded with messages that cause us to examine our walk with the Lord based on how our lives here on earth are going. Both of these doctrines are false and dangerous. Job's story is the most common example of how a righteous man can have calamity come into his life. And the apostle Paul, if he were living in our day, how would his life measure up? He was beaten repeatedly, from which I am sure there were visible scars. He had no wealth, was jailed repeatedly and operated in direct opposition to the church system. Both of these "righteous" men were able to keep perspective in their adversity. They had peace in their adversity because they knew that the Lord operated outside of their time domain. They knew that the steps of their lives were known by the Lord from before the foundation of the world. Our lives are no different from theirs. The Lord is allowing us to participate in His awesome plan through the struggles of this life. My prayer is that we would seek our peace in Him, KNOWING that our position in this life and/or our righteousness is not based on worldly successes, how much we read the Word or how often we pray. It is all about what the Lord is, and has been doing from the foundation of the world.

Much Love in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Max and Tammy