The Bond of Peace part 4
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit. The bond of peace. Not an absence of things (or people) that bother you, but joining together with people as you put in the effort to understand (and love) them. Endeavouring meaning "hurry up and enjoy the peace that comes from knowing the work is finished!" Like in Hebrews 4:11, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Where "labour" is 4707 in Strong's Greek Concordance. The same word as "endeavouring" in Ephesians 4:3! It means, again, "to use speed, that is, to make effort, be prompt or earnest: - do (give) diligence, be diligent (forward), endeavour, labour, study." We don't work to enter into rest. The work is finished. That's why (and how) we CAN rest. We simply need to hurry up and enter into it. Hurry up and stop trying so hard to be someone we're not, in order to get something we think we haven't got. Its the good fight of faith; laying hold of eternal life. Receiving the gift we've already been given. We don't work to accomplish the unity of the Spirit. God is that Spirit. Love is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Its the "unity" with each other that seems to trip us up. Because we tend to think "I'm right and you're wrong." We tend to draw lines in the sand and build walls. We think we need to guard our hearts by closing them down. When in truth we guard our hearts by keeping them open. Keeping them open to love. Letting love in, and letting love out. That is the heart's purpose. And anything other than that is, well, the opposite of peace. I can tell you from experience that I've never been more at peace than when I've operated out of love. When I've looked inside (instead of looking at external circumstances) and given people what I've got. When you give everything you have and everything you are... that's when you are trully and fully alive. Not when you're trying to get something, but when you're giving what you've got. That's what we're here for. Blessed to be a blessing, right? Loved so that we can love. And I think that's a big part of this peace--embracing yourself. Being at peace with yourself. I know I Ranted a lot about the joining aspect of peace. But I think its worth mentioning how important it is to be ok with YOURSELF. Let me say it another way, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8). Its hard to flow when you're always trying to swim upstream. Its hard to love people when you don't love yourself. And here's the key to that--you CAN'T love yourself until you accept that God loves you. Because you can't give something you don't have. Not even to yourself. We love because God first loved us. That's how we fill ourselves to overflowing with what He filled us with. We know and believe His love for us, and then we use that love in every aspect of our lives. Peace is not the absence of anything. It is the presence of love. You can be peaceful even with a storm raging all around you... as long as you know who you are. As long as you're planted on the Rock you will not be shaken. The Rock. Jesus. Love!