"The Great Life"

"And in despair I bowed my head:
There is no peace on earth," I said
For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men."

"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead: nor doth He sleep:
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.

The above is taken from the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". Okay, you New Englanders, did you know that was originally written by Henry W. Longfellow? There is your bit of trivia for the day.

Peace... I think peace is a highly misunderstood concept. Peace is not what the world is looking for... the cessation of all war and conflict of any kind. That is not peace. That is a pipe dream.

We live in a real, live, imperfect world, with real, live, imperfect people. There are as many different personalities and view points as there are people. There is no there will be perfect unity in thought or philosophies or theologies.

So what about the "peace"? I'm not talking about peace as in quiet. As in "disturbing the peace", though I am not opposed to that type. I am talking about the peace that passes all understanding. That calm, trusting, feeling you can only get directly from the Lord when things start going awry, or are outright falling apart, or a catastrophe occurs. There is also the peace that Jesus left for us before He ascended into Heaven.

Lately we have been reading a book by Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest".

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you:.... Let not your heart be troubled." John 14:27

Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.

Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry til it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

My questions come whenever I cease to obey. When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind going on with amazement at the revelation of God. Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

My you be blessed today as you read and meditate on God's Word!