Prince of peace

 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 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

This passage of scripture is a reminder that true peace isn’t an arbitrary emotion that comes and goes based on circumstances. It’s not an intangible concept. It’s not just a feeling. Peace comes from a person because peace is a person. Peace is Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace. To be a prince means He is Ruler and Steward. He is the Ruler over peace, and He is the Steward of peace. This is good news because it means that where He rules, peace reigns.

But how can you experience the peace Christ offers? How can you know His peace when your life feels anything but peaceful? Allow Him to rule where you need peace.

In John 14:27, Jesus says, “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.”

Jesus is saying, “Choosing to receive my gift of peace and the peace I am is a choice. When you allow me rule over your troubled heart, when you allow me to rule over your fears, when you give me your troubles, I will give you my peace in exchange.” This is good news! Because, maybe Christmas is usually anything but peaceful for you. Perhaps the holiday season always feels like a struggle.

There can be family struggles. Perhaps instead of unity and togetherness, your family is always bickering and arguing. There can be struggles with loneliness. Those you want to be with can’t be with you and that hurts. There can be struggles with unemployment, diminishing finances, or ongoing illness. What a beautiful truth: He alone is the Prince of Peace—and where He reigns, peace rules.

During those times when you are grieved by family relationships, focus on Jesus and ask Him to rule and reign over your interactions with loved ones. Surrender control and let Him comfort you. Ask Him to teach you His way of peace. Allow Him to be your Prince of Peace.

If you struggle with loneliness, let Him comfort you. Invite Him into your quiet moments and allow Him to rule and reign over the times when you feel isolated. Choose not to let your heart be troubled or afraid. Allow Him to be your Prince of Peace.

If you are afraid for the future and are concerned about finances, employment, ongoing illness or something else that is out of your control, surrender your cares to Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Ask Him to be your Prince of Peace. He will meet you in your trouble.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” John 16:33.

God > Money

 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24

How do you know if you love God or money more? Ask, do you worry more about missing your prayer time or missing your paycheck? Are you more anxious about what the Lord thinks or do you obsess over the opinion of others? Are you driven to seek God’s Kingdom first, or to blindly build your kingdom? Devotion to the eternal or the temporal cannot be a both/and, but a choice of which one really captures your worship and priorities.

Money makes promises it cannot keep, like security, peace and prosperity. The Lord on the other hand makes you promises He does keep, like grace, forgiveness, joy and contentment. When the commands of these two contradict who will you follow, Christ or cash? Decide now, so when you are in the emotion of the moment you do not give in to glittering gold.

What keeps you up at night? Is it how to make more money or how to look and serve more like Jesus? Set your affections above and you will be more effective below. The Lord is looking for His children with whom He can entrust more of His blessings. He longs for the faithful who use their finances to draw lost souls to salvation, hurting people to healing and who boldly pray, “your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.

Perhaps you take your family on a mission trip, and see how the masses live with little money, but with a lot of the Lord. It is revolutionary for a soul that has been seduced by the mistress of money to see how believers without stuff affectionately embrace their Lord and Savior Jesus. Expose your faith to the poor, so you are liberated from wealth.

It is a heart issue. Who captures your affections, your Savior or your stuff? Money makes a poor master, but a useful servant. While indeed, Jesus is the trustworthy Master with whom you can place your faith and devotion. Money tries to maneuver itself into a place of priority, but by faith you can relegate it to serve righteous causes. Love Him not it.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Prayer the ultimate timesaver

 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him… Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. Acts 12: 5, 17

Prayer is a timesaver. It saves the ambassador of Jesus from unnecessary seasons of anxiety. It saves an employer from a wrong hire and the valuable investment of time, money and training in someone who does not stay around for very long. It saves a dating couple from a naïve emotional engagement to marriage without counting the cost of a lifetime commitment to love, to respect, to honor and serve each other. Prayer leads us and empowers us to wait for God’s best.

The flesh forces issues when prayer is void in the relational process. A person who is self-motivated but not Spirit led exerts a lot of energy, but can waste a lot of time. A prayerless approach to life and work can easily end up in a focus on the urgent to the neglect of what really matters. Prayer protects you from the clenches of another’s crisis.

“I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:22-23).

Is prayer the primary focus in your decision making process? Do you rest in the realization that He can be trusted to reveal the way you should go? Do you realize that His truth, though at times counterintuitive, saves you time in the long run? What the Lord is saying may not make sense right now, but later as you look back it becomes clearer and beneficial.

It is not a copout to first pray before you commit, it is a wisest filter for our decision-making process. Our Lord  smiles when we take the time to save time through prayer, and by waiting on His understanding in prayer. The prayerless crazy cycle of overreacting in fear and anger only prolongs the pain, while patient prayer applies heaven’s healing process.

So the Lord’s wisdom reminds us: Are you considering a career transition? Then ask God, in what role in my work can I bring you the most glory? Are you facing a difficult financial decision? Then ask Christ, how should I manage Your resources as a wise steward? Are you estranged from a friend or relative? Pray, what can I do to love them in Jesus’ name? Time is a gift from God that requires prayerful use, not fleshly abuse. So, pray well.

“While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding” (Daniel 9:21-22).

A little contemplation can go a long way

 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Contemplation/meditation is sometimes a lost discipline that draws us closer to God. Body, soul, spirit and mind have an undistracted focus on faith in the ever faithful one, Jesus Christ. Contemplation is not meant to create some ethereal, mystical moment to impress other followers. It’s an immersion of love to be loved and to love like Jesus. The fruit of contemplation is becoming more like Christ. We are conformed into His image as our attention and affections are swept away by our Savior’s love. Contemplation calms our heart, connects our spirit with His Spirit, feeds our soul and energizes our body. We contemplate on God so He becomes greater and we grow in humility.

This phrase in Psalm 19 is a prayer, an apostolic benediction that keeps us centered on what matters most the Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Our words are a reflection of our heart, so we make sure to meditate in our heart on what matters most thoughts, words and actions that please the Lord. Words stirred in grace display luscious art on the canvas of life. Every word is a unique color and creation that brings attention to the Creator, or conspires with enemies of the faith: the world, the flesh and the devil. Love focuses on the faithful Rock, the generous Redeemer.

“Let the words from the book of the law be always on your lips. Meditate on them day and night so that you may be careful to live by all that is written in it. If you do, as you make your way through this world, you will prosper and always find success” (Joshua 1:8, The Voice).

Every life that changes for the good requires reminders and repetition in right thinking, being and doing—otherwise human nature drifts toward dizziness. Good has come out of the pandemic. A recalibration of hurried lives to focus on what matters most in life: faith, family, friends. Yes, some marriages have imploded over intense pain—hurt accelerated to the boiling point. But other relationships have taken the time to repair, regroup and move forward in total trust. If we don’t build in margin to contemplate on the Lord—He can make us lie down in green pastures.

By faith embrace the fact that contemplation saves you time. Your prayers are a sacrifice of praise to God who graciously receives and gives back to you in the form of blessings. The blessing of being healthy. The blessing of the necessities of life being more than taken care of. The blessing of children who want to be with you and who want to serve others. The blessing of work. The blessing of rest. The blessing of being loved and being able to love others well. Contemplate on Christ to change you. Ask Him how He loves you. Pause, listen and do likewise.

“O God, we meditate on your unfailing love” (Psalm 48:9).

Stay focused

Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:28-31

The disciple Matthew tells the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water during a storm. Everyone was in the boat, afraid, not because of the wind, but because they thought Jesus was a ghost. When He identified Himself, Peter said, “OK, if it’s You, tell me to come to you on the water. What amazing faith Peter showed. And Jesus called him. Peter stepped out in overwhelming faith and walked on water. We don’t know how many steps of faith he took, but Matthew says that at one point he looked at the wind and began to sink.

The passage tells us, “And beginning to sink, [Peter] cries out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him.” Amy Carmichael, missionary to China, commented on this passage, “How many seconds lie between a man’s beginning to sink, and his actual sinking? A single second or less, I suppose. How swift, then, was the movement of love! And as He was, so He is.”

Jesus saved Peter. He called Peter to experience the height of the joy of faith and obedience. He also let Peter experience the fierce wind, the severe rain, the rocking waves. Jesus Himself had not changed between Peter’s joy and fear, Peter’s focus had, which then stole his faith. When we choose to focus on the wind instead of Jesus, we begin to sink. As our ankles begin to get wet, we are reminded that we have only one sure life boat. Jesus. As quickly as we cry out to our God again, His hand is there.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

Circumstances definitely rock our boats in this life, but that’s not what causes us to sink. Looking at the circumstances rather than God and His precious promises is what causes our noses to go under the waves. Sometimes this submarine-effect happens right after we have stepped out in great faith. We might be experiencing incredible victory when we ever so slightly change our focus and there we go, bubbles and all. In the story of Peter’s sinking, it wasn’t the outside influence of the wind which caused him to begin to sink. It was his response to the wind: Fear.

Fears sink our faith, ultimately sinking us. Truth be told, in this world there is always something to fear. But, deeper truth be told, there is always Someone who gave His all so that He could reach out His hand “immediately” to us even as we are just “beginning” to sink. The remedy to all fear is to take our Savior’s hand and let Him lift us out of our self-focus and bring us again to a microscopic Savior-focused life. We can look closely at every single promise, dissect each one, and we will find Him true. Like Peter, we only have to focus again and call out, “Lord, save me.” As we start the new year let’s leave behind past fears and focus on faith as we move forward.

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me” (Jonah 2:1-2).

Prolonged struggle

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10 (NIV)

In life, there are situations that require immediate and urgent attention, yet there are others that we tend to put off and ignore, though they continue to take their toll on us. Instead of moments of acute crisis, they instead wear us down quietly and slowly over time. Though everyone’s experience has been unique, as I reflect upon the past year, I think for many of us, the initial crisis of the pandemic has given way to a prolonged season of weariness and exhaustion, with many of us wondering if this will ever pass.

When faced with seasons of prolonged struggle, the temptation is to grow inattentive and neglect our life with Christ. Yet as Jesus says in Mark 13, we must keep alert and keep awake in the face of this difficulty! Similarly, Paul encourages us to “put on the new self” and live faithful lives for Christ (Colossians 3:10). What is keeping you from an attentive and purposeful life of discipleship? For some of us, we may be facing an unavoidable crisis in our lives that is all consuming and in need of urgent intervention. However, others of us likely struggle with sins that are subtle and elusive, easily missed by sluggish and sleepy Christians. The drip is quiet enough that, spiritually speaking, we sleep right through it!

Where in your life have you fallen asleep? Where have the little foxes snuck into the vineyard that threaten to steal your joy and leave you unprepared (Song of Solomon 2:15)? Advent is an invitation to learn how to stay awake. May God give us the strength and courage to do so, even in the midst of this dark and difficult season.