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Perfect Peace

Pursue the Prince of Peace

Synopsis: Pursuing peace always leaves us disappointed when turmoil still rules the day.  But pursuing the Prince of Peace, according to Colossians 3:15, keeps the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts. Isaiah 26:3 says it so beautifully, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid on thee…” 

Project 52—Memorize:
Isaiah 26:3

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

Perfect peace!  Is there really a way to cultivate that kind of peace?  Let me suggest 3 or 4 things.

First, you’ve got to recognize that God is the only source of true and lasting peace.  You and I cannot produce and sustain that kind of peace on our own.  It only comes from God…and from being in right standing with him.

Throughout the Bible, God is referred to as the God of peace.  Peace is what identifies and defines God, even though he is never isolated from conflict.  God is in the middle of a cosmic battle with Satan for control of the created order…and yet he is completely unruffled by it. God is peace! And the Apostle Paul gives us this wonderful promise in II Thessalonians 3:16:

“The Lord himself will give you peace always by all means.”

Peace originates in the character of God and comes from him. You can pursue peace apart from the work of the Holy Spirit until you are blue in the face. You can’t achieve it!  The only sustainable peace in life comes from the God of peace through the Prince of Peace, who will produce through the Holy Spirit the fruit of peace in your life.  So recognize the Source of true peace—God!

Second, don’t pursue peace; pursue the Source of peace. The peace of God will come as a natural result of the relationship we nurture with God. So our focus needs to be on the Source and not the by-product. Paul said in Ephesians 2:14 that Jesus himself is our peace, who has broken down every wall of hostility.

Pursuing peace always leaves us disappointed when turmoil still rules the day.  But pursuing the Prince of Peace, according to Colossians 3:15, keeps the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts. Isaiah 26:3 says it so beautifully,

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid on thee…” 

The word staid in the Hebrew meant to prop yourself up by or to put your full weight upon God for protection and security.  When you are leaning on God, you don’t have to stay awake at night worrying about tomorrow; you can literally say to God, “There’s no sense in both of us staying awake tonight…since you’re going to be up all night anyway running the universe, why don’t you handle this while I sleep.” Pursue peace and you’ll never attain it; pursue God and you’ll get peace!

Third, develop a world-view that is dominated by an eternal perspective.  In other words, discipline yourself to look at everything that has happened and everything you are facing through the lens of God’s sovereignty, power, love and his inexorable plan for the ages—which includes all the details of your life. God is control! Therefore, nothing can rob you of your peace.  Jesus said in John 14:27,  

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your heart be trouble and do not be afraid.”

Living with heaven in view in your everyday life will create the necessary conditions needed for inner peace. It will force you to see everything from an eternal perspective. It will remind you that God is in control of everything and has a purpose in all things. It will allow you to see things that once destroyed peace as opportunities to trust that God’s plan is being worked out in your life. That is the best recipe for peace.

Finally, refuse to wrestle with the peace-destroying issues that are threatening to disrupt your world. Release them to God in gratitude-laced prayer. The best-known passage on this is Philippians 4:6-7—and it is perhaps the greatest peace-thereapy there is:

“Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.”  

When we practice that kind of praying, here is what we will get out of that deal: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

When things are causing turmoil in our lives, Paul says take them to God in prayer. But notice what kind of prayer: Prayer that is dominated by thanksgiving. Why is thanksgiving so important? It releases truth into your spirit: The truth that God is sovereign, that he is the source of provision and that he has a plan in the particular things we’re praying about. That is what thanksgiving does—that is why it produces peace. It reminds you that God is still running the universe—and he’s perfectly capable of taking care of you!

When you are in right relation with God, when you are fixing your thoughts on him and looking at all of life with heaven in view, when you are practicing gratitude, then you can live daily, hourly, minute-by-minute with this powerful and wonderful gift: The transcendent peace of God.

“Peace is the settled assurance that because of God’s care and God’s competence, this world is a perfectly safe place for me to be…although it doesn’t always look like it.”  ~Dallas Willard

Reflect & Apply: What are the things that are robbing you of peace today? The Apostle Peter encourages you to cast them upon God (I Peter 5:7).  How about practicing your casting today!

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Game. Set. Match.

God Will Leave None of His Promises Unfulfilled

SYNOPSIS: In Israel’s conquest of their Promised Land, the day came when their leader Joshua declared, “mission accomplished!” God had given all their enemies into their hands and fulfilled all of his good promises to them. Game! Set! Match! That is a true picture of the believer’s journey with God—periods of walking, waiting and working, but never any wasted timed. God is leading and guiding, strengthening, purifying and tempering us into a holy people fit to possess his promises. And at stages in the journey, he brings us to places of victory and rest. We should anticipate those places, pray for them, and cooperate with God to get there as quickly as we can—knowing that our stubbornness, rebellion and lack of trust will slow the journey down. And when we get there, we should continually remember that it was the good Lord who gave us the victory. Game! Set! Match!

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 21:43-45

So the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.

Total victory! It might take a while to get there, and it will involve hard work, sacrifice along with a no-giving-up spirit, but when we are on God’s side and God is on ours, like Joshua and the Israelites, there will come a day when the Lord will give all our enemies into our hands and every single one of his good promises will be fulfilled to us. Game. Set. Match. And God will smile, for the truest and best victory is the smile of God.

For Israel, that took a very long time. Some of that extended time was the result of their stubbornness and rebellion—they had to repeat first grade: some of it was simply the nature of conquest—remember, this wasn’t a field trip, this was warfare, and warfare requires grit and determination; some of it gets chalked up to the sovereign ways of God—he lives outside of human time, so he is not a clock-watcher like we are as he develops his people into champions for life.

Not only did Israel’s journey take a long time, but it was full of hardship, battle and testing. Again, chalk that up to the sovereign ways of God—he was preparing his people for possessing his promises, and they needed to first be tempered. Yes, it took a long period of walking, then waiting, then working, followed by a long period of working, then waiting, then walking some more, but none of the time was wasted.

Finally, the day came when Joshua declared, at least for this stage of Israel’s journey with God, “mission accomplished!” Game. Set. Match. God had given all their enemies into their hands and fulfilled all of his good promises to them.

That is a true picture of the believer’s journey with God—periods of walking, waiting and working, but never any wasted timed. God is leading and guiding, strengthening, purifying and tempering us into a holy people fit to possess his promises. And at stages in the journey, he brings us to places of victory and rest. We should anticipate those places, pray for them, and cooperate with God to get there as quickly as we can—knowing that our stubbornness, rebellion and lack of trust will slow the journey down. And when we get there, we should continually remember that it was the good Lord who gave us the victory.

Game! Set! Match! That is the story the good Lord has pre-written about your life and mine. And while there will be other conquests until we reach heaven, when you reach victory in the present moment of challenge, remember who gave it to you. When you overcome a sin, receive an answer, and achieve a success, remember that it was the good Lord giving you a win over your enemies and fulfilling his good promises to you.

Likewise, remember that since God has a history of giving victory and fulfilling promises in your life, he will definitely be there for the next conquest, too. He is true to his character and faithful to his covenant with you—always. And he will never fail you—never!

So enjoy the victory of this moment and be encouraged with whatever tomorrow holds. And between now and heaven, get ready to hear it a lot:

Game. Set. Match.

Going Deeper: Are you in a season of victory—even just a small one? Rejoice—give God the glory!

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The Accommodating God

He Keeps An Eye On His Kids

Nothing about our lives is too small for God’s involvement. He is a loving, caring, engaging Father to his people. Back in the days of the Canaanite conquest, he held Israel’s hand and settled them into a land of their own for the first time. And what was true of God then is just as true of God today: He keeps an eye on his children, watching over even the minutiae of their lives, making accommodation for their weaknesses yet guiding them into the righteous living that is necessary for his gracious blessings upon them. So be encouraged today, because God cares about your life—every last detail of it.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 20:1-3, 9

The Lord said to Joshua, “Now tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed Moses. Anyone who kills another person accidentally and unintentionally can run to one of these cities; they will be places of refuge from relatives seeking revenge for the person who was killed…. And he must continue to live in that city until the death of the high priest who was in office at the time of the accident. After that, he is free to return to his own home in the town from which he fled.

The more I study scripture, the more impressed I am with God. I mean, I already love him, serve him, and worship him wholeheartedly, but as I get to know him more and more over the years, the more amazed I am at who he is—his character, his benevolence, his love for his people. And here in Joshua 20 as we learn of the cities of refuge he commanded of Joshua, I am struck with how accommodating toward his people he is.

We develop some very interesting ideas about God along the way; some of them entirely wrong and inaccurate, some of them flat-out heretical, some of them misguided and some of them incomplete. Mostly our tainted views of God come from second-hand information—learning about him from extra-biblical sources, like parents, Sunday School teachers, club leaders, etc. Now there is nothing wrong with learning from the people who disciple us; that is actually the way of God. And we depend upon others to help form our understanding of God when we are children or new believers. So I am in favor of human teachers and deeply appreciative of what they do for us. After all, I am one!

But sometimes we end up with a view of God that has not been informed directly by the Word of God. That is why we can develop a view of God that sees him as detached from our daily lives and common concerns, or that sees him as angry and spoiling to judge us, or as a grandfatherly type deity in the cosmos who winks at sin and is at our beck and call to give us our every wish. If you hold that view of the Almighty, it didn’t come from scripture, it came from people.

But at some point, we need to know God from scripture. When we do, we quickly learn that he is not perpetually angry, or disconnected or wishy-washy about sin. In fact, we see from this chapter which details his prescription for dealing with accidental deaths in the community that he is very much concerned about both justice (the righteous punishment for sin) and the accommodation of our human frailty (his anticipation that there will be accidental deaths among the human race). Furthermore, we see in the founding of these cities of refuge that God didn’t merely give rigid, inflexible rules to govern the social and legal needs of his people, but he took into consideration that there would be some gray areas of the law as well as highly reactive human emotions to accidents and grievances. It also shows us that God went to great links to provide practical guidance for even the mundane matters of human life. Actually, it shows us that nothing about our lives is too small for his involvement.

God is a loving, caring, involved Father to his people. That was true back in the days of the conquest as he held the Israelite’s hand and settled them into a land of their own for the first time. And what was true of God back then is just as true of God today: he keeps an eye on his children, watching over the smallest of details of their lives, making accommodation for their weaknesses yet guiding them into the righteous living that is necessary for the release of his gracious blessings.

So be encouraged. God cares about your life—every last detail of it.

Going Deeper: Is there a minor detail in your life that is bothering you, but perhaps you feel it is too small of an issue to involve God? Let me encourage you to lift that concern to your Heavenly Father in prayer today. Believe that he cares about it and he cares about you!

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A Way Out

SYNOPSIS: Your battle with temptation is winnable! That’s good news. There’s always an escape route—always—when you are being enticed to break God’s law. And not only is there a way out when you are tempted, but it is God himself who will provide that way of escape; he will make a way. God has provided the door, but here’s the deal: You and I must look for it; we must walk through it!

Project 52—Memorize:
I Corinthians 10:13

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Did you catch that? Your battle with temptation is winnable. The last part of the verse says so: “When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out.”

That’s good news. There’s always an escape route—always—when you are being enticed to break God’s law. And not only is there a way out when you are tempted, but it is God himself who will provide that way of escape; he will make a way. God has provided the door, but here’s the deal: You and I must look for it; we must walk through it!

Are those escape routes mysterious, accessible only to the spiritually elite, hard to grasp and even harder to enter?  Not at all—they are very clear, quite simple, and easy to access.

One way of escape is to immerse yourself in Scripture. Psalm 119:9 & 11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

That’s how Jesus battled temptation in the wilderness. Every time the tempter came at him with something that would tear him away from his Father, Jesus came back at Satan with the truth of Scripture. There is no more potent weapon against temptation in your life than in reading systematically, meditating daily, and memorizing strategically God’s Word.

Another escape route from temptation is to become accountable to another believer, especially for your particular weakness. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We need to bring our temptation into the light of accountability to other people—as difficult as that may be.

Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” You would do yourself a huge favor by finding someone with whom you can be accountable for your weakness.

And yet another way out is to ask God to deliver you daily from the tempter. Jesus taught us to pray a daily prayer that acknowledges both our weakness and our need for divine power in this area: “Deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13)

As simple as that sounds, the amazing thing is, God hears those prayers. And he always provides a way out.

“Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.”  ~Martin Luther

Reflect & Apply: As you are meditating on 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, look more closely at the ways we have identified as God’s way out for you.  Can you connect them in specific ways to the common temptations you are facing? Can you identify other “ways out” the Bible teaches that God has given you in every temptation? Today, look for those divine exits—and take them.

 

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Ask Big, Live Large

Your God Is Honored When You Pray Bigly

Are you willing to ask big things of God? God loves it when his children trust him so much that they are willing to step way out in faith to possess promises that are way beyond what is humanly possible. God is honored when we pray bigly. But if you ask big things of God, get ready to be big enough for the britches God gives you. God wants to give in abundance, but he will never waste kingdom resources. In other words, he wants you to leverage every ounce of his provision to the maximum so that he can give you more. If you waste it, settle for less than maximum use, or misuse what he provides, he will not release more to you. In fact, there is indication in scripture (Matt 25:24-30) that if we don’t steward his gifts wisely and industriously, he will even take away what he has given and give it to someone who will develop it in faith. When he gives you something, he expects you to fill it out. So be willing to ask big and live large in such a way that his abundant goodness is visible through you!

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 19:1, 9

The tribe of Simeon’s homeland was surrounded by Judah’s territory…. Their allocation of land came from part of what had been given to Judah because Judah’s territory was too large for them. So the tribe of Simeon received an allocation within the territory of Judah.

Are you willing to ask big things of God? I hope so! God loves it when his children trust him so much that they are willing to step way out in faith to possess promises that are way beyond what is humanly possible to attain. God is honored when we pray bigly.

So are you ready to live large! If you ask big things of God, get ready to be big enough for the britches God gives you. You see, God is a God of abundance, and he gives in abundance, that is, he gives us more than enough. But while he gives abundantly, he never wastes kingdom resources. When he gives you something, he expects you to fill it out. In other words, he wants you to leverage every ounce of his provision to the maximum so that he can give you more. If you waste it, settle for less than maximum use, or misuse what he provides, he will not release more to you. In fact, there is indication in scripture (see Matthew 25:24-30) that if we don’t steward his gifts wisely and industriously, he will even take away what he has given and give it to someone who will develop it in faith.

In the case of the land allotment to the tribes of Judah and Simeon, the visionary folks of Judah had an industrious spirit about them. So God gave them much more land than they needed at the time. Yet because they had not taken full advantage of it, God took a portion of it and assigned it to the Simeonites. Judah, however, was not content to shrink into their land. They got fired up and later on asked the warriors of Simeon to join forces with them to take the land that was not yet under their occupation:

The men of Judah said to their relatives from the tribe of Simeon, “Join with us to fight against the Canaanites living in the territory allotted to us. Then we will help you conquer your territory.” So the men of Simeon went with Judah…. Then Judah joined with Simeon to fight against the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they completely destroyed the town. So the town was named Hormah. In addition, Judah captured the towns of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, along with their surrounding territories. (Judges 1:3,17)

I like that about these two tribes. God’s blessing was more than they could handle, but they were unwilling to shrink into what they could handle. That is not the case with many believers: they get overwhelmed by abundance, as unbelievable as that sounds, and for a variety of reasons, fritter away their opportunity to fully occupy their blessings. They are like the intimidated steward in Matthew 25. But in the case of Judah and Simeon, they got smart: they joined forces and helped each other take the land. By faith and hard work, the expanded into their blessings.

That is the kind of believer I want to be. I want to be someone who is not afraid to ask bigly of my Father. And I want to be someone who is not afraid to leverage the large opportunity he gives in response to my asking, and maximize what he has placed in my hands. I want to do that to show him how much I trust him. I want to do that so that he can trust me with more. I want to do that so that others will be provoked to godly discontent in settling for anything less than God’s generous abundance.

Among the many things I want people who know me to say in reflection of my life, I hope they will say, “He asked big, but he lived large for God.” I want to leave nothing on the table when my life is over. I want none of heaven’s treasures appointed for me while I am on earth to remain in heaven. I want it all for the glory of God alone.

How about you? Let’s make a commitment from this day forward to be people of ask big and live large.

Going Deeper: Ask your Heavenly Father for some big, hairy audacious provisions today. Choose to ask big, then live large.

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Waiting On The God Who Waits On Me

Make Sure To Do Your Part

SYNOPSIS: Where are you waiting on the God who is waiting on you to do your part. What does that look like for you? Where do you need to step up and get after it? Are there divine promises unclaimed in your life, and the constraint is not God, it is you? Tough questions, but let me encourage you to get after it. The effort will be well worth it, and besides, God has already done his part; victory is already yours. So why wait any longer? Let me give you a verse from another section of scripture that applies to what I am asking you to do: “Be strong and courageous and get to work. Don’t be frightened by the size of the task, for the Lord is with you; he will not forsake you. He will see to it that everything is finished correctly.” (1 Chron 28:20, LB) Be bold and get after it—God is waiting on you!

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 16:5-6,10

Now that the land was under Israelite control, the entire community of Israel gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle. But there remained seven tribes who had not yet been allotted their grants of land. Then Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given to you?

Perhaps what you are waiting on from God is waiting for you to do what God is waiting for from you. Wait! What? Wait? I know, it sounds a bit convoluted, but simply put, sometimes we are waiting when we should be working. God has done his part, but we haven’t done ours, and so the answers to our prayers are delayed.

The Christian life is a balance between what God does and what we do. Of course, our work is in response to his work—we don’t work to get God to do anything; he has already done everything, and our effort is always what is right and fitting because of his gracious acting on our behalf. We have a covenantal partnership with God, and each plays a role in order to live out the covenant. Or as Paul puts it in Philippians 2:12-13,

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

We must work out what God has worked. But so often we wait for God to do what he has already done. We misunderstand our responsibility in the partnership, or we avoid it because of spiritual laziness, or we are irresponsible, or frankly, maybe we are in rebellion against God, and we are simply not carrying our weight in the deal. Whatever the case may be, God will not do what we are to do. God will do what we can’t, but he will never do what we won’t.

Now in Israel’s case, God had promised them the land of Canaan as their home. He had brought them through 400 years of slavery in Egypt and through forty years of wandering in the desert to the edge of their new homeland. He had gone before them and had driven out their enemies. He had guaranteed their victory. But he had also called them to cross the Jordan into the land. He expected them to fight their enemies, drive them out and take possession of the cities and farmland the Canaanites left behind. He had been clear that they were to stay at it until the task was complete. Yet after more years than they needed, the work was incomplete. They had not done what they were supposed to do in response to what God had already done. So Joshua called them out on it.

I suppose all of this makes sense to you, and that you agree with it in principle—that God plays a part and we play a part. But I also suspect this is a bit vague as it relates to your life specifically. So the challenge I have for you in response to this chapter is to do some hard thinking about where you may be waiting on the God who is waiting on you to do your part. What does that look like for you? Where do you need to step up and get after it? What promises are unclaimed in your life, and the constraint is not God, it is you?

Tough questions, but let me encourage you to get after it. The effort will be well worth it, and besides, God has already done his part. The victory is already yours. So why wait any longer? Let me give you a verse from another section of scripture that applies to what I am asking you to do:

Be strong and courageous and get to work. Don’t be frightened by the size of the task, for the Lord is with you; he will not forsake you. He will see to it that everything is finished correctly. (1 Chronicles 28:20, LB)

Be bold and get after it—God is waiting on you!

Going Deeper: Where are you waiting on the God who is waiting on you to act? That is the most important question you will be ask today. I hope you can answer it, then do something about it.

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Act As If

Be Strong - Act Boldly!

SYNOPSIS: When the Bible commands you to be strong and courageous, what does that mean for your life today, practically speaking? Simply put, it means that you would just “act as if” God is in charge. Now that sounds great, but how do you bring that out of the vague clouds of theological agreement and into the real world of what is assigned to you today? Well, on this particular day, it will be fear, not problems, that will keep you in the wilderness of spiritual paralysis and out of the promised land of measurable progress! So don’t let that happen. Act as if God is with you—because he is. Now with that in mind, what action steps do you need to take with God at your side to move from good intentions into ruthless obedience? Write out those steps … then boldly take them!

Project 52—Memorize:
Joshua 1:9

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

As you read Joshua 1:1-9—the setting for this verse—you can’t help but notice the repetition of the phrase, “Be bold and courageous.”  My guess is that Joshua has a bit of a fear problem going on as a result of the overwhelming leadership challenge that had been thrust upon him.  That’s why four times God reminded him to just “act as if God were with him”—which he was, of course.

Isn’t that really what being bold and courageous is? To just “act as if” God is in charge.

Like Joshua, you may have a pretty big task in front of you, and what typically happens in those cases is that you begin to doubt. You begin to question: “Is it really God’s will that I do this? Will he be with me? What if I fail?” Doubt sets in. And when doubt sets in, fear is not far behind. And when doubt and fear team up, you’ve got a recipe for spiritual paralysis.

That’s like the Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown was standing there waiting to catch a baseball, and he says, “A pop fly!  I’ve got it!  It’s all mine.”  Then he says, “If I catch this ball, we’ll win our first game of the season.”  Then he starts praying, “Please! Please let me catch it. Please let me be the hero.  Please let me catch it. Please!” 

In the next frame, Charlie says, “On the other hand, do I think I deserve to be the hero? The kid who hit it doesn’t want to be the goat. Is baseball, a game, really that important? Lots of kids all over the world have never even heard of baseball. Lots of kids don’t even get a place to play at all or have a place to sleep or…”

And just about that time the ball drops right in front of him—bonk! Linus comes out and says, “Charlie Brown! How could you miss such an easy pop fly?”

Charlie says, “I prayed myself out of it.”

We do that sometimes, too. We start doubting the opportunities that God places before us, and pretty soon we talk—or pray—ourselves out of them. But like Joshua, God says to us, “Have confidence in the fact that I want to bless your life and give you success.” 

A. B. Simpson once said, “Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small; our expectations too limited.” Four times God said to Joshua, “Don’t you get it? You can do it! Go for it! I’ve got you covered.”  In other words, “Be determined and confident. Act as if I will be with you and help you out—because I will!”

God said that to Joshua, and made sure that it was included in his Holy Book, because he foresaw that today, fear, not problems, will keep you in the wilderness of spiritual paralysis and out of the promised land of victory!

So don’t let that happen. Act as if God is with you—because he is. He promises!

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reflect & Apply: What is the task that is before you today? Take a moment to envision tackling it as if God were right in front of you. Then, act as if!