Peace of God
Devotion 13 - Strengthen
Through Peace of God
Rom.5:1 – “Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
In the beginning, man had peace with God in
the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, through sin, we lost that peace and became
separated from Him. But God did not abandon us. Because of His great love, He sent
His only Son Jesus to restore that peace and reconcile us to Himself. Jesus is
known as the "Prince of Peace" (Isa.9:6). He came to earth to bridge the gap between
sinful man and a Holy God. For that reason, the message of salvation is also
called the “gospel of peace” (Eph.6:15).
Peace with God and the Peace of God
Rom.16:20 –
“And the God of peace will crush Satan
under your feet shortly…”
It says here that God of peace will crush Satan under our
feet. Satan can be crushed by God of Peace!
Some suggest that this verse was the fulfillment of Gen.3:15,
the promise that the seed of the woman bruising Satan’s head. Yet, others
believe that it refers to the second coming of Christ whereby Jesus will defeat
Satan completely. However, the former view was already fulfilled at Calvary as
Paul put it aptly in Col.2:15
“Having disarmed principalities
and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it…”. And the latter view might not be right
because this verse is talking about Satan being crushed under OUR feet rather
than Jesus’ feet.
Hence, I personally believe that this verse is
referring to us growing in the faith till we reach the maturity to defeat Satan
with the God of Peace in us. It is important to take note that this verse
points to the future “shortly”. Simply put, it means that the
bruising of Satan is something God will do in the Christian’s life if we will
diligently study, believe, and obediently apply the Word in our life.
Phil.4:7,9 –
“ and the peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus…The things which you learned and
received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will
be with you.”
Here, we can see Paul turns from contemplation to practical
living. In verse 7, Paul
told us that if we let our concerns be known to God, “the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.” But in verse 9,
he is saying that the God of peace Himself—the very God who gives peace—will be
with us. It’s more than just experiencing the ‘peace’ from God; but now the
Prince of Peace, who gives us the peace, stays with us to make sure we keep on
experiencing that unending supply of peace as an ongoing reality in our lives.
And the key to it is Obedience & diligence “things
which you learned and received and heard and saw, THESE DO,
and the God of peace will be with you.”
May God help us to be good students, good
practitioners so that the God of Peace may continue to increase in our lives
and our occasional ‘experience’ of Him becomes a constant living force and
strength in us to destroy any form of accusation or work of the enemy against
us.
Jesus calms the storm with Peace
Mk.4:37-39 –
“And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the
boat so that it was already filling…then He arose and rebuked the wind,
and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
Jesus calm the storm with the ‘force of
Peace’. We can never calm the storm that rage against us until and unless we
have that calm in our own life. Unless the God of peace is in our own spirit,
we cannot release it as a force through our spoken word. Can someone who is frustrated and tense calm
another person? Can someone who is fearful help others who are fearful?
Likewise, unless we are at peace, we cannot bring others to peace. We cannot
give what we don’t have. The degree the Prince of Peace is in
us is the degree the force of peace is effective in us and can be released
through us. The peace must be in us
before it can be a force from us.
Jn.16:33 – “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus spoke these words
on the most difficult night He faced on this earth, the night before His
crucifixion. Seven times in the New Testament our God is called either the God
or Lord of Peace. Nothing in the world can overcome us if the Prince of Peace
truly lives in us. There is strength in God’s Peace!
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