Focus on the Peace
I loved Sci-Fi movies as a kid. Fantastic Voyage is one of those classic ones I remember watching multiple times. The thought of being miniaturized and being placed in to the human body to explore and fix health problems is a fascinating idea. I remember the scene where the antibodies were attacking the girl and the ship. The crew worked diligently to save the girl and set the ship free so they could move on with their mission. Sometimes I feel like different aspects of my Christian walk are just like that scene. I am out there in the world trying to get some good things accomplished for the Lord when I get all tangled up in some mess that slows me down or hinders my walk.
It seems like when I make a commitment to the Lord to improve an area of my life or to reach out to the World for Christ I am soon covered in antibodies attacking me. Satan and his minions approach me and my life and my commitments like they are a foreign substance to be eliminated. The harder I try, the harder Satan tries to stop me. This can be a very frustrating situation. Many Christians give up in the early stages of this battle and become consumed in the antibodies. This constant battle for control of our Christian lives can take the peace right out of it.
What we need to remember as Christians is that Jesus was born to bring us the ultimate state of peace in our lives. We don’t have to endure these spiritual battles alone. It is only common sense to realize that if God wanted us to have and maintain peace in our lives, that He is also going to provide the way to do that. God’s answer to keeping the peace is found in these verses:
Isaiah 26:3
3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on You in perfect peace, for it is trusting in You.
Romans 8:6
6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 14:17
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Keeping our minds on Christ brings us true and lasting peace. The problem is that we let Satan easily distract us with the things of the World. We start becoming focused on the things that are not of God or His Kingdom work. We take our eyes off of glorifying God and on to what meets our needs. We are not to be focused on “eating and drinking” as Romans 14 says, but to be focused on righteousness and peace and joy. Those things can only be accomplished when we are spending time with the Lord regularly through conversation/prayer, worship, service and Christian fellowship. We need to take our eyes off the TV, Movies, Music, News, Magazine Articles, etc., that shift our focus to worldly concepts and we need to put our eyes more on the Word. When we spend constant time in the Word through Bible Reading, Audio Podcasts, Sermons and Bible Studies at church, we embed the Word in our hearts and not Satan’s words. God makes it quite clear in Romans 8 that death comes from the things of flesh, but the things of God bring peace and life. In Isaiah 26 we are told that we need to be “dependent” on God. That is where most of us get off track. We think we can do everything by ourselves. We think if we know a few Bible verses and attend church once and a while that we can walk the Christian walk just fine. That is an independent deception from Satan.
So will you join me as we end this year and begin the new one to make a commitment to accept the peace, share the peace and focus on the peace? Will you make a commitment to be dependent on God and not yourself?
