Friday, May 25, 2007

Peace by being 'taught' and 'set free'

As I have been thinking along the lines of ‘peace’ the following text came to my mind.
“And all thy children [shall be] taught of the LORD; and great [shall be] the peace of thy children.” Isaiah 54:13 This text is a promise of God to parents. Peace in this context as given is a result. The ‘cause’ of this peace is being ‘taught of the Lord’.

Might this text also have something to do with ‘spiritual maturity’? I can’t give someone an apple if I don’t have it. Parents can’t ‘give’ to their children (or rather guide their children into) something they don’t have first.

Another promise from the Lord that I have claimed many times is: “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee and I will save thy children.”. Isaiah 49:25 This promise looks forward to ‘peace’ but it sounds as though there may be some experiences along the way that may not necessarily be ‘peaceful’ as I have often pictured ‘peace’. Here is the ‘whole’ text. But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

Sounds to me like there are some rough experiences, especially for some, before the ‘save thy children ’ which brings ‘peace’. When a person has been ‘captured’ by an enemy he or she may talk about freedom all the time. But until the Lord sets a person free from Satan’s dictatorship – by the person's choice and God’s power combined – one is still a slave to Satan’s whims.

In my experience the Lord has had to set me free from Satan’s power of lies as a pre-work before He can be as effective for my family. I have had that happen time and time again. But oh the JOY and PEACE combined when I learn ‘THE TRUTH’ – Jesus’ thoughts and view’ – and correspondingly ‘let go’ of the lies, misrepresentation, or any other viewpoint the devil has foisted upon me in a particular area. When I ‘see’ ‘THE TRUTH’ – Jesus’ view – I am also enabled to see the other person through Jesus’ eyes. Since Jesus has already ‘paid the price’ to deliver every human being through His great rescue operation (also called the plan of salvation), as I accept His plan in my life I am then enabled to see others the way God sees them – the plan God has for their life rather than as I formerly 'saw' them with my 'human' based eyes.

This topic of Peace, then, not only deals with the here and now as well as the future but it also affects how we view others. Yesterday gave me a good illustration. I was to take a friend to the airport to pick up someone coming to visit her. I thought we needed to leave no later than 12 noon. She had many projects she wanted to accomplish before we left as well as getting cleaned up for the trip. Needless to say, the temptation to begin to get ‘frustrated’ at what seemed apparent delays to our beginning the trip to the airport presented itself to me. I just decided that it wasn’t necessary. I would rather keep my ‘peace’ (inside of me) rather than add to her burden as well as make myself unhappy. Interestingly enough we got to the airport in time to wait. How often in the past have I gotten impatient, especially in situations like the above even though it never seemed to do any good.

That is the kind of freedom I referred to earlier. God's peace enables me to not only view others through His eyes but to stay in His will of Peace in my heart, praise the Lord.

Time is passing and I do have a list of ‘to do’s’ so must go for now.

Bringer of Peace

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