Peace, bro.

If God responds to my obedience, then I can impress Him. If He responds to my faith, then He will impress me!


Do I really want to worship a God that I can impress?


The law was given to show me my faults, of which there are many. Scripture tells me to "live by faith." But what does that mean? It means trusting God. It means allowing Him to set me free. I just read that sentence again. Me allowing God, somehow that does not sound right. How can I allow God? I don't think I can. So perhaps a better statement would be that I allow myself to experience freedom.


God wants me to be free, and has made it so that I can experience freedom. It is His gift to me, the gift of a loving father. But I fight that gift. I allow things to enlave me because I do not let go. I hold on to thoughts and emotions that are not good for me.


Galatians 3:12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."


We live by what we do, and we do according to what we live by. So, if we live by faith, if we trust God completely, then we can have peace because what we do is guided by Him. If we hold on to other things, then we do not live by faith, and what we do is based on something other than God's guidance. And if we are fighting God, we cannot have peace.


My wife reminded me of something I had said before about peace. Peace is not contentment, it is not the absence of conflict so that we just become a floormat for those who want to walk all over us. Peace is a powerful force. Just like the U.S. has powerful peacekeeping forces that are a deterent to conflict, God is our peace. He is our powerful force that when we are in His hand, takes away the conflict and gives us peace.


Ephesians 2:14