Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. (Psalm 119: 165, NKJV).
Dear Heavenly Parent, in this day and age in which peace is a commodity, help us to hold fast to Your peace and never let it go, by Your keeping grace. In the name of Jesus our Lord we pray. Amen.
Peace, the very word sounds sweet and soft. The minute I say the word, I seem engulfed in a state of relaxation. Peace. It cannot be bought or sold. Sometimes it can be momentarily transferred from one person to another in conversation. I have spoken to people and have been moved from anxiety to peacefulness. Those are very rare experiences, but I thank God for them.
However, the peace that I am referring to today is one of a kind, and it comes from the One and Only true source of lasting peace, God, the Holy Spirit. You see friends, the extraordinary fruit that the Holy Spirit brings to our life: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (temperance)” (Galatians 5: 22, 23) has all the elements to produce a great peace.
When I hear the phrase “great peace” I think of depth, a peace that goes beyond human reasoning. I think of height, it comes from above. I think of endurance, it outlasts our problems and difficulties. I think of grace, that is offered even to those who try to rob us of this peace. I think of Christ, our Peacemaker!
I want that kind of peace. Not only for a day, or a season, but forever! I want the Holy Spirit to abide in my life so that I can smile through my tears, fall asleep in the midst of a raging storm, and offer love to those who do me wrong, instead of retaliation. Because this fruit is of heavenly origin, I must allow the Savior to hold my hands and pull me up to higher ground where I can reach up and pluck it from the tree of life whose branches “hang over into our fallen planet” and gives us the promise of life everlasting!
Then, by God’s grace, I will continue to eat of this fruit until I am so strong that “nothing [will cause me] to stumble[!]”
NOTE: To those who visit this website on a daily basis my heartfelt regret for the days of absence. Travel and other circumstances interrupted the posting of the devotionals; but I will be going back and forth until the missing days have been filled. Thank you for your faithfulness!