Peace

I had the opportunity to do something nice for someone yesterday who has been causing me a lot of grief. I have to be honest and say I didn’t want to do it, but if I’m really going to walk my talk, I had to. The interesting thing to me is that it was easy to do once I’d set my mind to do it. I had a momentary wrestle with God, and then it was done with. Afterward I told Him, “You know I didn’t want to do that,” because I know there’s no need to lie to Him. He knows what goes on in our hearts and in our minds, so there’s no point in trying to pretend.

Jesus tells us to bless those who curse us, and though He’d probably like it much more if I could have done it with a heart full of love, He also knows what this person has been doing to me. I’m not going to go into details because we all have our own stories, and yours may even be worse than mine. Let’s just say that it was someone I trusted who completely betrayed that trust and has been treating me so badly and has caused so much trouble in my life that it seems as if they’re trying to destroy me. And all because they are trying to put themselves in a position of security and power. And it’s a person who says they’re a Christian too. It has taken all of the strength that the Lord can give me to not tell them off.

When Jesus tells us to bless when we’re cursed, He’s not saying that we should be a doormat. But what He is saying is that we need to know Him and know and trust His word enough so that we can just keep living our lives in peace and love and joy no matter what comes our way. If I allow this person to get to me, they’ve stolen my joy. If I allow them to make me lose my temper and tell them off, I’ve lost love and peace.

In John 14:27, Jesus says to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” That’s the New International Version, and the New Living Translation adds something nice too, “I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” The NET Bible and God’s Word Translation do something very interesting with the end of the verse. “Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage,” and “So don’t be troubled or cowardly.”

I had never seen a translation of that verse that used the words courage and cowardly before I looked it up just now as I wrote this. We so often think of courage as something that attacks other people, or at least defends your own ground. But Jesus is talking about something much more powerful here. He is talking about the courage to do the right thing that comes from knowing that He’s got your back. It doesn’t matter if someone else is trying to stab you. As long as you trust in Him and His way, “He will bring forth your righteousness as a light and your justice as the noon day.” (Psalm 37:6)

Psalm 37 is an an amazing Psalm. They all are when they’re the word that you need. But the Lord has given me Psalm 37 for myself and for other people I know many times. “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret, it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:1-9)

In verse 11, there is a promise of peace – His peace once again – and then in verses 14-15, we read this, “The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.” It’s amazing to me how God works, how He speaks to us and through us. As I was writing this, just before I looked up “righteousness as the noonday,” I was thinking about a verse that had to do with weapons being turned back against the person who was using them. I looked up “their weapons will be turned against them,” and couldn’t find it, and then the phrase, “righteousness as the noonday,” came into my mind and when I looked it up, there was the other verse, right in the middle of the same Psalm. One of the ways that God reveals Himself is as Jehovah Nissi, the Lord Our Banner (Exodus 17:8-16). When I saw that verse, I saw Him waving His banner.

We can have His peace – He has already given it to us. All we need to do is accept it. His promise to us is that when we trust in Him, He will fight our battles for us. The courage He is talking about is the courage to stand on His word, to not fold when fear starts to rise. When He talks about the righteous, He’s not talking about people who are perfect. Romans 3:23 tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But verse 22 tells us, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Faith and trust lead to hope, peace, joy and love. It is the absence of faith that brings fear, but “perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18).

So here we are back to courage again, the courage to have faith, to do things God’s way and not buckle under pressure. It is very interesting to me the way that the Lord is speaking to me now about all of this, because I am seeing so clearly that the person who has been treating me so badly is simply caught up in fear. The reason for all the things that are being done to me are based in a lack of faith. It doesn’t make the behavior right – in fact it makes it evil. When we act out of fear and not out of love, we are very easily led to do things to harm other people because we think we need to harm them in order to protect ourselves.

But God tells us something completely different. He tells us to bless others, no matter what they are doing to us and no matter what is going on around us. He tells us to trust in Him and to do good, and His promise to us is no small promise. He promises to give us the desires of our heart. He promises that our righteous reward will shine as a light and our justice as the noon day. He doesn’t say it’s all right if people are hurting us, but He does say to let Him fight the battle and to wait patiently in the place of His peace.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan