7/10/13:

TFTD: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27

God's Peace. Sounds like the greeting that you give to others on Sunday morning during church but is that all God's peace is or is there more to it? In John 14 Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit as a helper for those who believe in Him so that they don’t have to be afraid or troubled, so they could have peace. But we are humans. Regardless of whether or not Jesus is telling us to have peace and not to be afraid our sinful self is going to continually beat us down with fear and troubles. Have you ever thought about this, maybe those troubles are from God? Maybe God is giving or letting you endure this trouble because you will have a better sense of God's peace when you come through it? In a bible study I sat in recently a pastor said this "Troubles are just God pruning believers." And I have heard that a bunch of different times but he continued on with this "Is pruning considered Law or Gospel? It is all going to depend on where you are at in your faith walk." I hadn’t heard it that way before. We are going to interpret our pruning a little differently depending on who we are. I looked into it a little bit further and came across this verse, 1 peter 1:6-7 which says "…if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith… may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Does that mean that God send/lets trials happen? You bet. Does it mean that we will be tested? You bet. But it also means that we will have peace in the end (whenever that end is) knowing that God used that trial or tribulation through you to further His kingdom. What a joy it is to be used for God's master plan, there is even a little peace knowing that God is using me, even if I don’t understand it.

"Pray for great things, expect great things, work for great things, but above all, pray"-R.A. Torrey