Peace, Power, Presence

Recently, I have learned, and reasoned that life without His presence, peace and power is a life full of gifts but lacks a giver.  Even if we get what we think we need, or what we think we truly want, we will fail to really enjoy them.  In a sense, your birthday gifts when you were younger were awesome, but you really wanted a party that included your friends and family along with them.  Gifts require presence.  Otherwise, they are simply gifts that don’t satisfy a deeper longing; the longing of belonging.  Sounds redundant? Interesting that belonging includes the word “longing”.  We all want to belong to Something, Someone, or Someplace.  This is our nature, and also our destiny.  And Jesus knows this more than we know.  He wants to give us more than we really can comprehend in life.  I’m not preaching prosperity gospel, so don’t get scared.  What I’m saying is that His love is more real than the frailty of the circumstances in life.  In this I want to say that yes, the Lord will honor people’s desires of their hearts so that they can best worship and serve Him, and I also want to say with an even stronger yes, the Lord will give us Himself.

 Brokenness cannot be substituted.  I think our culture has taught us absolute numbness leads to absolute happiness.  In this, “If it’s not there, then it doesn’t exist.” This couldn’t be further from the truth, though.  I think I have tried that more than a few hundred times.  I try to believe a lie that the pain that is present can be ignored, so long as I say it isn’t really, truly there.  The longer we isolate from the healing, the longer we remain hurt.  It’s only natural that healing can be painful, but this is the pattern of metamorphosis.  It isn’t easy, but it’s worthy.  Being honest with ourselves and being honest with the Lord is what will release the power of His healing in our lives.  I’m not going to include all of 2 Peter 1: 3-11, but you ought to read it.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”- 2 Peter 1:3 & 4

We have been given everything to live out that which we were called to.  We are asked to live in the faith that the things that we seek in the gifts themselves have already been provided to us in Jesus.  I just want to say, life isn’t easy, especially in waiting for the things you feel you’re going to be given.  But, I think of Jesus’ life, and the joy that He carried.  He didn’t go through His life with the doom of the crucifixion.  Instead, He went forward with the love of God firm and overflowing in His heart, ready to enjoy the life He had ahead of Him (and more importantly), the life before Him in the present, and ready to share that infectious love of the Father with people He encountered. 

So now, you who are weary, rest in the love of God that is ready for you. The Lord has tailored His affections to each child to show them a personal kind of love, and it is ready for you.  Focusing on the Father and His infinite love will lead us to His heart. And this is good; His heart is full of peace, life and joy. 

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:7