Peace with God part 4
I started this Rant series with Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Today I want to add the next verse, Romans 5:2, "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." And I think the most important thing--the thing I want to key in on tonight--is "wherein we stand." Because, as I've tried to illustrate in this series, peace with God isn't something we need. Its something we have. And because we have it... we can "make" it. Or give it away. Share it. When you're at peace, you can make peace. But if you're trying to get it--if you think sometimes God is mad at you and sometimes He's not--you're double minded, and unstable in all your ways. So. Faith. Knowing and believing that we have what God says we have. Knowing and believing that we are who God says we are. And standing in that grace. Grace, by the way, is the unmerited favor of God. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve. God gave us this gift--of HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--simply because He wanted us to have it. Simply because He loves us. He didn't make us work for it, or jump through hoops for it. Because love is not about what you do. Love is about who you are. And what you do flows from who you are. It flows from what you believe. Your faith works, because faith without works is dead. You do what you believe. What's inside--what you believe is inside--comes out. It has to. Because its too big to keep inside. Because faith activates it. So instead of chasing something we think we don't have, instead of trying to GET something... we need to stand in what we do have. Stand on the Rock. Be firmly planted on the foundation that is Jesus. The foundation that is love. Look at John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Jesus never said things would always go the way we want them to. In fact, the word "tribulation" there is number 2347 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "pressure (literally or figuratively):- afflicted, anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble." Life, right? And life happens every day. If its not one thing, its something else. We all go through things. But the key is to make sure things don't go through you. To have peace and be of good cheer. To know that no matter what happens... love will get us through it. And, listen, sometimes you have to go through this to get to that. So it might seem "bad" but its all working together for the good. Learning and growing. Maturing. You know how people say, "If you pray for patience, God will give you opporitunites to be patient"? Well, He didn't give us peace because we wouldn't need it. He gave us inner peace--peace with Him--so that we could stand firm and make peace whenever and wherever it is needed. We ARE at peace with God. Because He wanted it that way, and made it that way. He gave us His peace. And now we can give it to those we come into contact with!