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Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Romans 5:1
All the ‘Bible people’ had a dark side. If a background check were given to any of them, it would come up dirty.
Adam was a man who failed to take leadership.
Abraham slept with his wife’s servant girl.
David was a lust-filled, murderous, absentee father.
Samson was arrogant.
Isaiah struggled with his mouth.
All of these men and more had a part of their lives which betrayed the picture of perfection we’d like to elevate them to.
Yet, time and again, God refers to these men as his friends and men after his own heart. They were far from perfect. But God has a tendency to use imperfect people for amazing results.
The natural human tendency when we love someone is to do things that please them. Human love is performance based, Godly love is positionally based.
Human love lives or dies based on what you do. God’s love perseveres because of what he did through Jesus.
In Jesus we have peace with God. That’s positional. Sin in our lives may rob us of the peace OF God, but not peace with God.
Be thankful that peace with God isn’t dependent on your actions but on his action. We fail. We doubt. We procrastinate. But he remains faithful.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalms 131:2
Have you ever noticed how a baby laughing can charge a whole room with smiles and warmth? Have you seen anything more peaceful than an infant sleeping? And let’s be honest, is there any noise more annoying than an infant crying? Especially when that infant is hungry?
One would think the world was coming to an end! Few things (nothing?) will calm an infant if their mind is set on food.
Psalm 131 is a song the Israelites would sing on the long, sometimes treacherous path to worship in Jerusalem. Verse one is about humility, about not concerning oneself with things not understood and not seen.
Verse two is about contentment. One time, at a college basketball game I observed an infant sleeping in her car seat. The game was close. The crowd was loud. The little girl slept peacefully in the midst of, and unaffected by the noise and chaos. That is contentment.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that? Rest peacefully among the chaos, fear and noise of our world around us? We can you know. Jesus promises us a peace that passes all understanding. Jesus promises us that even though there will be turmoil, he is the author and sustainer of contentment and peace.
You know Jesus, right? The guy that slept in a boat that was breaking apart because of an angry sea? Let your heart rest in the comfort of knowing his love and protection over your life in spite of the chaos around you.
Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Psalms 131:1
We’ve all met that person. You know the kind. The person that always interrupts you to tell you that they ‘know what you mean’.
Another variation is the person who always knows exactly what you should do in ever situation because they have been there and ‘this is what they’ve done.’ If you don’t know anyone like that it may be because you ARE that person.
King David, mighty and powerful as he was, didn’t hesitate to admit that he didn’t know everything. Humble people aren’t people who degrade themselves, they are people who realize their own limitations and would rather listen than talk because they know that they will gain more knowledge by listening than they will by talking.
In a culture where many get their information from social media, truth becomes more clouded. Yet David implies in this verse that he won’t get involved in arguments he knows nothing about, but will put his faith in the knowledge he gets from God.
In spite of the many Biblical resources we have available to us, we are more and more Biblically illiterate! The source of all knowledge needs to come from God’s word and not social media.
Be careful who you listen to. The only real source of truth is madly in love with you and has promised that the closer you draw to him, the more you will be able to discern truth.
Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me. Psalms 116:7
We carry a variety of burdens every day. Physical burdens of exhaustion, sore muscles, illness, or the inevitable ‘old age.’
The emotional burdens we carry are legion. Relationships that are difficult. Our kids make choices we never raised them to make. The rising cost of living seems out of control. Politicians talk about solutions but never act on them. Our minds never seem to stop reminding us of all the struggles we have.
Spiritually, we struggle with doubt. We struggle to understand. We struggle to pray and read as we know we should. We struggle to have the desire to spend time with God. We never seem to be able to fill this void in our lives that leads to true happiness and fulfillment. We long for rest, but it seems just out of reach like the gold ring on some maniacal carousel.
Jesus calls us to rest in him in the midst of our struggle. In Matthew 11:29 he calls us to “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Sometimes the best rest we can have is worship.
True Worship draws us into rest at every level (physical, spiritual, emotional/mental). Jesus is humble and humble people don’t judge. Jesus is gentle and gentle people understand and aren’t critical.
When we focus on worship, the distractions can become less as we rest on the promises, presence and peace of Jesus.
After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River— the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” Genesis 15:17-21
Some think Grace is a New Testament thing, but Grace is a thread that begins in Genesis and will continue through all eternity.
The story in these verses is one of grace. God seemingly randomly calls a man named Abram to a new land of promise. Abram was anything but perfect, yet he believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness. Grace. It’s about believing, not action.
God tells Abram to cut up two animals and lay them in such a way that there was a walkway between them. Later, God appears in the form of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch. In ancient days, a covenant was finalized by both parties passing through the carcasses, but here, only God passes through.
Grace isn’t a two-person event, but God reaching down to mankind knowing full well he could not fulfill his end of the bargain. If you know the history of this Abram (later Abraham) you know his descendants constantly rejected God and his ways. They rebelled. They fought against each other (the ultimate family feud) they worshipped other idols.
But God’s grace continued to put up with them, and in Jesus their salvation was complete.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. My chains are gone. I’ve been set free! You are always within the reach of God’s grace. His covenant promise is for all eternity.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 