Peace Out part 4
If you have peace, you can make peace. And that is extremely important. Because in this world we WILL have tribulation. Life happens. Every single day. I've heard it said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it. You can either be a thermometer, and take the temperature... letting what's happening around you dictate what happens inside you... or you can be a thermostat, and set the temperature... letting what's inside you dictate what's happening around you. The more excellent way is to be a thermostat. The more excellent way is to know what's really inside... and in knowing (and believing), let it out. Share what you've got. Give what you've got. The LOVE that you've got. The grace, and mercy, and forgiveness that you've got. The peace that you've got. If you know it, throw it. That's as simple as I can make it as far as ministry goes. Know what you've got and use what you've got. Let the mind of Christ, that's already in you, BE in you. Live abundantly. Live out of your abundance. With the understanding that it is love that makes life abundant. That it is love that makes life worth living. That it is love that makes living possible! To live is to love and to love is to live. Here's what I want to say today though, now that I've said all that: Love is gentle. Love is kind. Love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love, in a word, is peaceful. And, yes, I understand that Jesus kicked some tables over. I understand that He said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). All I can say about that is... He had some overcoming to do. Which is why WE are overcomers. Not because we can (or need to) overcome. But because Jesus already did. He finished the work. He did the heavy lifting. And now we can rest. In the arms of our loving heavenly Father. Look at what Jesus said in Luke 8:48, "And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." See, what I'm trying to say is that Jesus made peace. And we "make" the peace that He already made by believing that He already made it. By receiving it and releasing it. By breathing it in and breathing it out. By letting the peace that's inside come out. Jesus is our peace. In Him we have peace. But that takes faith. That takes knowing and believing that He did what He said He would do. The Holy Ghost wildfire of love--the consuming fire that love is--burned everything else away and left only itself (HIMSELF). Jesus brought every mountain low and every valley high so that we wouldn't have to stumble or fall or even climb. So that we could walk the straight and narrow way that leads to life. The way of love. The way of (again) mercy, and grace, and forgiveness, and... peace. If you're not always trying to fight every battle... you can be peaceful. And if you're peaceful, that peace will expand. If you HAVE peace you can MAKE peace. If you know and believe it. If your faith connects you to Jesus--who (one more time) IS our peace! Don't worry about what tomorrow holds. Have faith in the One who holds tomorrow!