Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Struggle for Peace

Peace must be pursued.  It doesn't just come to you.  There is nothing passive about a life of peace.  You can't gain peace by osmosis.  You can't inherit peace.  You have to reach for it, chase after it, and hold on tight to it as you live your day-to-day life.
It isn't because the peace itself is fleeting or untamable.  On the contrary.  Peace is readily available for us through the Holy Spirit.  However, it's our own nature and disposition that will try to rip peace away from us.  Our attitude will do anything it can to distract us and keep us from trusting in Christ to be our peace.  Our self will scream for control and constantly tempt us to grab the reigns of our lives.  The problem is, unfortunately, you can't hold onto the reigns and to peace (that is Jesus).  Hence the struggle.
Peace is there, ready for the taking as a result of the Holy Spirit in our lives provided through our relationship with Jesus.  But, we have to be willing to step over the "dead man" (our former selves) to reach it.  Every day, we have to make the choice, do we hang on to us or do we grab on to peace.  Do we consistently and repeatedly drink from the well of life-- the scriptures--and bask in the presence of the author of life--Jesus?  Or do we rely on ourselves from situation to situation?  The choice seems obvious to me.

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