Peace is more than the absence of war. It means tranquility, rest, and well-being. Peace comes from God and God is the God of peace. God is the source of our peace. So how do we experience peace?
1. Be made right with God. The one who has placed his faith in Jesus Christ is made right with God and can, for the first time, have real peace (Rom. 5:1). 2. Let the peace of Christ always be present in your heart. Peace of heart comes from Christ (Col. 3:15). So, when we give Christ first place in our life and live as He wants us to, He gives us peace of heart. As members of the body of Christ, this is our responsibility and privilege (Col. 3:15). 3. Fix your thoughts on the Lord and what is good. Those who trust in the Lord and turn their thoughts often to Him will have perfect peace (Isa. 26:3). And the God of peace promises to be with those who fix their thoughts on what is true and good and right, and on those things they can praise God for (Phil. 4:8, 9). 4. Confess your sins to God. One method God uses to keep us pure and in close fellowship with Him is to take away our peace when we sin against Him and refuse to confess it (Ps. 32). Before He will restore our peace, He requires that130 we confess our sins to Him. Then He will forgive and cleanse us from every sin (1 John 1:9). 5. Resist the devil James writes that if we submit to God and resist the devil he will flee from us (James 4:7). One of those times we should resist the devil is when he points his finger at sins that we have already confessed. Another time is when he causes us to have feelings of guilt that are so general we cannot identify the sin which must be confessed. The devil hates God's people and wants to destroy our peace of mind, so he falsely accuses. In Revelation 12:10, the devil is called the Accuser. Don't ever let him get away with accusing you. Forget the past. Although God has forgiven and cleansed us of our sins, we have a tendency to remember and impose self-condemnation. But the Apostle Paul tells us that he learned to forget his past sins and present imperfections, and look to Jesus Christ and His promises (Phil. 3:12-14). If Paul, who claimed to be the greatest of all sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), was able to forget his past, then we should also be able to accept God's forgiveness and forget. The one thing to remember is that God is able to forgive and forget our sins (Jer. 31:34). "He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west" (Ps. 103:12).
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AuthorMinister Ross' creativity, wisdom, and insight have inspired community, church and corporate audiences throughout the United States. Archives
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