Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Hey there my favorite warriors for Jesus! If you've been coming by here on a regular basis this year, I just thought I should let you know that we are officially tethered together and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Haha!
Hey there my favorite warriors for Jesus! If you've been coming by here on a regular basis this year, I just thought I should let you know that we are officially tethered together and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Haha!
Anyway, mad shout out to my fellas who are fathers naturally, through adoption, or spiritually. This past Sunday was designated to you! You know I was thinking about how Father's Day, is actually the most underrated, low-key disrespected, undervalued holiday of them all. You can see this in the stores as well as the advertisements.
Even stupid bunnies and that fat diaper wearing baby gets more clout than fathers.
I don't think that's right at all!
Fathers are just as important as mothers. They have a valuable innate task to give language to a child's understanding in certain areas that mothers just don't have the capacity to do.
Fathers should be undergirded with honor and appreciation, regularly. I was glad to see so many people showing love to their fathers and even fathers getting national recognition. I applaud this trend over the bashing of absent, neglectful men too immature to take on the role of a true father.
We should invest in showing more attention to men who are out here doing the dang on thing for their children and their families.
Annnnd now I shall remove myself from this soapbox until maybe a later time.
Last week in my post Joy To The World, we took a bite of the fruit of the spirit called JOY. A rather tedious task for me to try to explain this fruit to you guys as I mentioned. But it wound up being an enlightening one overall because from hence forth as I continue to seek God, I know that in some way He will bless me with a new revelation of who He is. Automatically qualifying me to receive joy which I can store away for a time when I may need it most. I pray that you were able to at least take that away with you after reading this post. If you haven't read it yet, please feel free to do so when you can.
Let us help ourselves and dig into the fruit basket for PEACE. A beautiful fruit that is defined as a freedom from disturbance. Tranquility is its primary synonym.
In the current days where it seems, chaos is fostered and literally fanned like flames,
peace is a commodity.
But what must one do to get a piece of peace? Is peace a place? Does it have an address? How do you find it and how do you know you've found it if you believe you found it? If a believer is known by their fruit which includes peace, how does he or she possess it in order to express it?
I'll tell you that it's something that can't be strived for but something that is realized as you grow in your trust in God. Where some trust in chariots and some in horses, WE the children of God will trust in the name of the LORD our God.
As King David put it in Psalm 20:7.
I don't care what you put your trust in to garner peace, that peace will be more generic than a little bit and it will not stand a chance up against life and its typical shenanigans.
Moreover, if your definition of peace is crushing people's dreams, spitting venom on other people's paths, forcing muzzles on people you're intimidated by, to maintain your method of madness and form of stability, that's NOT PEACE!
That's manipulation and sabotage!
And I rebuke you! You cheap Thanos!
I pointed out last week that when you seek God, you'll receive a greater revelation of who He is and then come to know joy. What if I told you that the more revelations you receive of God the more you will begin to trust Him?
Then, as you trust Him more, peace makes a pleasant entrance.
Peace my friends has a direct relationship with trust.
Yet the bottom line is your SEEK.
The most peaceful believer you'll ever meet is one who is in constant pursuit of God and not just necessarily seeking some kind of order. They've committed themselves to a never ending quest to find God in everything and everywhere.
The seek sparks trust which produces the reward of peace.
Perfect peace.
You'll know you've come into peace when you can be placed into the middle of chaos and be unstirred. You don't have to go to a foreign island for peace. That island can be erected right from the soil of your soul.
When your soul is in a posture of pursuit, peace is attracted to you.
You'll also know you've come into peace when you can change the temperature/actions of a volatile climate. Peace filled believers are antidotes not agitators. They can tranquilize an irritated atmosphere with little to no effort.
Consider the account of Jesus in Mark chapter 4, as he slept on the boat with the disciples during a storm. He wasn't awakened by the storm but by his frightened disciples.
What was his response?
He rebuked the wind which funded the storm that made the sea rage and beat up against the boat they were in. Then said,
"Peace be still."
But why did he say that if the sea was in a rage?
Doesn't that mean that there was no peace to command it to be still?
He had to tell peace to be still because it was arrested due to the disciples lack of trust. Once he settled the disagreement between their trust and perfect peace, the sea had no choice but to return at ease.
If you go back and read this account for yourself you'll see that Jesus rebuked the wind first but the sea didn't calm down until he told peace to be still. It is because although the windstorm aroused the raging waters of the sea, the sea was able to gain its momentum where there was an absence of trust. Leaving peace frantically searching for a place to rest.
In order for peace to rest it needs to find trust to lay on.
Can anybody see this?
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
It is important that we cultivate the fruit of peace because as believers, we will almost always find ourselves in situations that beckons it. If we possess it through trust from seeking God, we can exercise it on demand and will know how to be peacekeepers and peacemakers.
I shared this sometime back with another audience, that peacekeepers will go through great lengths to protect their peace. Peacemakers will go through great lengths to protect the peace of the environment. Peacekeepers seek for tranquil spaces. Peacemakers seek for tranquil hearts.
They both seek peace but from different places. Yet the objective is to protect the integrity of the fruit of peace so that it may continue to rest.
Jesus was a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. So should we be.
I'll share this brief #TransparentMoment before I let you all carry on about your day.
The latter part of my journey in God has largely consisted of Him just destroying all of my definitions and understandings of pretty much everything including the fruit of peace. My definition and understanding of peace was so elementary that I can look back and laugh at it, now.
For so long I'd associated quietness with peace. Until I moved into my new place at the end of last year and found out sadly that this was not true AT ALL. It was quiet for a whole month and I will be 100% honest with you all, I felt like I was going insane because my paranoia would not allow PEACE to be still. The quiet confused me. It was eerie.
I had become so accustomed to noise, agitation, and chaos that I was looking for it.
Instead of making a space for peace to chill.
I thought that peace was something I had to pine and fight for not something that I needed to seek God and trust Him for.
So when noise, agitation, and chaos did come, I took my natural fighting stance to combat them and not a posture in pursuit of God.
King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3, that there is a time for war and a time for peace.
Notice he mentioned two entities of time, not one. War and peace.
If we're trying to overcome something we may be called to war.
But when we're trying to change something we will be called to peace.
Catch this quickly please!
Once my understanding shifted, God shed
light on the little island in my soul where He'd blessed me with peace. And in order to keep this space up, I must trust Him as I seek Him and seek Him as I trust Him.
Won't you join me?
Last week in my post Joy To The World, we took a bite of the fruit of the spirit called JOY. A rather tedious task for me to try to explain this fruit to you guys as I mentioned. But it wound up being an enlightening one overall because from hence forth as I continue to seek God, I know that in some way He will bless me with a new revelation of who He is. Automatically qualifying me to receive joy which I can store away for a time when I may need it most. I pray that you were able to at least take that away with you after reading this post. If you haven't read it yet, please feel free to do so when you can.
Let us help ourselves and dig into the fruit basket for PEACE. A beautiful fruit that is defined as a freedom from disturbance. Tranquility is its primary synonym.
In the current days where it seems, chaos is fostered and literally fanned like flames,
peace is a commodity.
But what must one do to get a piece of peace? Is peace a place? Does it have an address? How do you find it and how do you know you've found it if you believe you found it? If a believer is known by their fruit which includes peace, how does he or she possess it in order to express it?
I'll tell you that it's something that can't be strived for but something that is realized as you grow in your trust in God. Where some trust in chariots and some in horses, WE the children of God will trust in the name of the LORD our God.
As King David put it in Psalm 20:7.
I don't care what you put your trust in to garner peace, that peace will be more generic than a little bit and it will not stand a chance up against life and its typical shenanigans.
Moreover, if your definition of peace is crushing people's dreams, spitting venom on other people's paths, forcing muzzles on people you're intimidated by, to maintain your method of madness and form of stability, that's NOT PEACE!
That's manipulation and sabotage!
And I rebuke you! You cheap Thanos!
I pointed out last week that when you seek God, you'll receive a greater revelation of who He is and then come to know joy. What if I told you that the more revelations you receive of God the more you will begin to trust Him?
Then, as you trust Him more, peace makes a pleasant entrance.
Peace my friends has a direct relationship with trust.
Yet the bottom line is your SEEK.
The most peaceful believer you'll ever meet is one who is in constant pursuit of God and not just necessarily seeking some kind of order. They've committed themselves to a never ending quest to find God in everything and everywhere.
The seek sparks trust which produces the reward of peace.
Perfect peace.
You'll know you've come into peace when you can be placed into the middle of chaos and be unstirred. You don't have to go to a foreign island for peace. That island can be erected right from the soil of your soul.
When your soul is in a posture of pursuit, peace is attracted to you.
You'll also know you've come into peace when you can change the temperature/actions of a volatile climate. Peace filled believers are antidotes not agitators. They can tranquilize an irritated atmosphere with little to no effort.
Consider the account of Jesus in Mark chapter 4, as he slept on the boat with the disciples during a storm. He wasn't awakened by the storm but by his frightened disciples.
What was his response?
He rebuked the wind which funded the storm that made the sea rage and beat up against the boat they were in. Then said,
"Peace be still."
But why did he say that if the sea was in a rage?
Doesn't that mean that there was no peace to command it to be still?
He had to tell peace to be still because it was arrested due to the disciples lack of trust. Once he settled the disagreement between their trust and perfect peace, the sea had no choice but to return at ease.
If you go back and read this account for yourself you'll see that Jesus rebuked the wind first but the sea didn't calm down until he told peace to be still. It is because although the windstorm aroused the raging waters of the sea, the sea was able to gain its momentum where there was an absence of trust. Leaving peace frantically searching for a place to rest.
In order for peace to rest it needs to find trust to lay on.
Can anybody see this?
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
It is important that we cultivate the fruit of peace because as believers, we will almost always find ourselves in situations that beckons it. If we possess it through trust from seeking God, we can exercise it on demand and will know how to be peacekeepers and peacemakers.
I shared this sometime back with another audience, that peacekeepers will go through great lengths to protect their peace. Peacemakers will go through great lengths to protect the peace of the environment. Peacekeepers seek for tranquil spaces. Peacemakers seek for tranquil hearts.
They both seek peace but from different places. Yet the objective is to protect the integrity of the fruit of peace so that it may continue to rest.
Jesus was a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. So should we be.
I'll share this brief #TransparentMoment before I let you all carry on about your day.
The latter part of my journey in God has largely consisted of Him just destroying all of my definitions and understandings of pretty much everything including the fruit of peace. My definition and understanding of peace was so elementary that I can look back and laugh at it, now.
For so long I'd associated quietness with peace. Until I moved into my new place at the end of last year and found out sadly that this was not true AT ALL. It was quiet for a whole month and I will be 100% honest with you all, I felt like I was going insane because my paranoia would not allow PEACE to be still. The quiet confused me. It was eerie.
I had become so accustomed to noise, agitation, and chaos that I was looking for it.
Instead of making a space for peace to chill.
I thought that peace was something I had to pine and fight for not something that I needed to seek God and trust Him for.
So when noise, agitation, and chaos did come, I took my natural fighting stance to combat them and not a posture in pursuit of God.
King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3, that there is a time for war and a time for peace.
Notice he mentioned two entities of time, not one. War and peace.
If we're trying to overcome something we may be called to war.
But when we're trying to change something we will be called to peace.
Catch this quickly please!
Once my understanding shifted, God shed
light on the little island in my soul where He'd blessed me with peace. And in order to keep this space up, I must trust Him as I seek Him and seek Him as I trust Him.
Won't you join me?
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