That is practically a sermon in itself. Think of it. This is not referring to just any old peace, or peace once in a while, but 'great peace'. Not just a little bit here and there, but 'great' peace.
Who gets that kind of peace? Those who love God's law.
What kind of love is this speaking about? There is a love between a baby and a caregiver. There is a love between husband and wife. There is a love that is based on hormones - sex. There is a love between friends. Do any and all of those kinds of emotions we often label as love qualify as the kind of love that produces 'great peace'?
This brings up the question of what is God's law? Jesus said in Matthew 22: 37-39 that the first and great commandment was to love God most. The second was similar, which was to love others as we love ourselves. That brings us back to pondering what kind of love are this is talking about.
For one thing, we love because we are loved. We love God because He first loved us. A baby loves mommy because mommy first loved baby. Only by love is love awakened.
Sounds to me like that the kind of peace talked about here is based first on receiving love and secondly on allowing the love received to 'flow through us' and on to another 'mind'.
Could that be one reason why a person who is choosing to accept God's love and then allow that love to flow through them to all they come in contact with, experiences 'great peace'?
God's kind of peace in this context is not dependent on what others 'do' or how they respond, so much, as on how 'open' we are to taking in God's love and sharing it with others.
Looking at the last part of that sentence adds another very interesting component to this 'great peace' experience. When I feel offended by another's action, might it be that the offence is not so much what the other person is 'doing' or how they are 'behaving', but rather that I may be attempting to 'hord' rather than 'share'?
Think of the consequences of this kind of peace based on love. "NOTHING shall offend them". That is really somthing. That is the kind of God we serve. First God loves us. Then the more we accept His love and allow it to 'flow through us' and continue on both to God as supreme and to others as we love ourselves (God's law), the less and less we will perceive offence, until 'nothing will offend us' WOW! That is awesome.
God is love. God loves me. God loves you. The more love we accept and share God's love the less offence we will experience and the greater peace we will enjoy in Jesus.
I believe I have been learning a little bit about that. We chose to help a friend move this week. We have attempted to execute this 'move' in less than one week. (Sometimes I feel I don't want to move for a while right now.) So many small and big experiences have been used by God to show me the reality that He is more interested in people learning to know who He really is rather than in 'material' things during this move.
Monday, with the help of a young man we finally got a 17 ft U-Haul loaded and taken to the new 'home' and unloaded. Tuesday it seemed that anything that could go wrong did - and then some. But by Tuesday p.m. I began to get this strong feeling that this was more than 'just a move', but rather a supernatural 'war zone' if you please. My hubby came over after work and it was a real encouragement to me, but we still seemed to be in 'granny' gear with many a stone in the way.
Folks had promised to help but were mostly 'no show'. Finally my hubby and I just stopped and talked to the Lord for a little while as we rested. We wanted to know what God wanted to happen. My beloved made a statement that I believe was from the Lord and we decided to work at least a little longer. Shortly after that prayer time a couple more folks joined us and as a team we got the truck packed (by about 2 a.m.) The next morning I found out that somewhere around the time we had prayed, other prayers were joining ours. I now firmly believe that a spiritual battle was raging, but God won. God is in the business of winning. He has already declared victory, and as we praise Him it beats back the enemy and gives us the Victory of Jesus.
Wednesday another young man was able to help us get another load and get it unloaded as well (this time by about 10 or 11 p.m.).
I will admit that today I have been a bit slower. A crew came today and moved all the big furniture and our friend is in her new place tonight. We still have a lot to do to get her settled in her new place but I rejoice in the peace God has been giving me through this experience.
It may not sound like a lot - to move in one week - but the last time she had moved it seemed like the whole experience had been dragged out over perhaps two months or so. I learned a lot of lessons but not what I would want to repeat for a 'move'.
According to the above statement, the kind of Peace I am looking for is based on love - God's kind of love. It is also based on our choice to 'receive' love and 'give' love. Might it be that peace gets lost if we try to 'hord' love? or if we 'reject' love? Definitely something to think about.
May God's kind of peace by yours
Bringer of Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment