The Lord Gives Strength and Peace
The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace. Psalm 29:11
The Lord is good to you and I. He gives us strength to be overcomers (Revelation 21:7). He strengthens our hearts and minds through the working of his Spirit and his Word in our hearts (Ephesians 3:16). The Lord casts us not away when we miss the mark… when we sin but he is merciful, full of grace, leading our hearts to repent and turn to his ways… 1 John 1:9.
The Lord is our hope, our courage, our song in the middle of the night. His Word lifts our hearts, clears our guilt, restores us…(Psalm 31:24).
The Lord blesses our hearts with great peace (Psalm 119:165). Great peace is found in God’s Word, in meditating on it, reading it, hearing it read. When our minds are focused around his Word… we have perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).
The Lord is your strength and your peace.
posted by Michael Byrd at 7:10 AM
2 Comments:
Hello,
I like this piece, it is the first one that I have read that didn't make me cry.
In this post you talk about God not turning away from us even when we sin. That he wants to lead us into asking for forgiveness and then follow him.
I understand this, but I have to ask why after we repent and ask for forgiveness and guidance do we still feel guilty? I keep thinking that God must hate me or have me in the back room because of something I did. Because ever since this happened life has been hard. It has been 5 years ... I have asked forgiveness from the person it hurt and from God yet I still cry over it.
Some injuries go deep and they require a long time to heal. Without the knowledge of God's balm of comfort and mercy some injuries fester and their infection grows. God's great comfort... often shown through the comfort of others... and a good knowledge of God's mercy will begin the healing process; healing from the inside-out.
After a while... (a time only the heart can recognize)... the immediate pain will diminish... the continual recognition of the injury will disapate and the emotional brusing will pale. It will be time to move on... to look beyond the past... beyond the injury... and look forward... look beyond... see a future filled with promise and hope... (The Apostle Paul:Phil. 3:13 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Consider the hurt in Paul's life. He had personally persecuted the church... he had helped to have Christians killed. Consider how that must have plagued his mind... consider the guilt that must have ravished his mind day and night... yet, even this he put into proper perspective... this, among many things continued to remind him and helped to keep him humble.
Paul recognized the mercy and comfort of God in his life... 2 Cor1:3-4 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Paul saw that his pain and tribulation had a purpose... that purpose to give and provide direct comfort to others.
Concerning languishing condemnation: We have an enemy of our souls who seeks to destroy what God is doing in our lives. ["Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" 1 Peter 5:8] One way that our enemy likes to try to devour us is through unnessary condemnation... [Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.] The thing is to continue your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy of our souls wants us to quit... to give up. The Lord wants us to repent, learn from our mistakes, and move on. Our past with the Lord becomes not something to dread but something to recall of how He has changed our hearts... of what great and wonderful experiences He's taught us and the comfort, mercy, and love of a Heavenly Father's eternal and gentle love.
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