On Peace

I have been going through it lately. Feeling insecure, lacking confidence and really unsure about the direction God wants me to move in my life. More than anything I'm expecting God to bring me peace in whatever comes my way. The peace that passes all understanding and is present during times of joy and pain. For the next 30 days I will focus on one scripture of peace each day. These are passages I've selected and you can follow too, but you can also chose your own and tell us about your experience.

8/10/11
Leviticus 26:6


"I will grant peace in the land and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land and the sword will not pass through your country."
I meditated on this scripture on Wednesday and tried to hold on to it whenever I was down. While I wasn't exactly sure what God was saying to me, I repeated and read and thought it through in hopes that the message God had for me would be revealed. I was talking to someone about it, read the scripture out loud to her and she was excited by the word - said it was a blessing to her because she had been asking God to expand her territory. "Awesome," I thought as I hoped one day I would be more than a mole carrying and transferring blessings for others without delivering on my own blessings.
Digging deeper into the scripture I found that God was speaking about the reward of obedience. Where He says He will increase our numbers and multiply our crops so that we will still be eating from the fruits of the year before searching for room to allot to the new crops. In this instance granting peace in the land and giving me the opportunity to lie down without being afraid says that I have nothing to worry about (as long as I'm obedient). The contemporary English version says God will prevent us from being harmed and spare us from enemy attacks. AMEN! What an awesome God we serve to know that as we try our best to do as he says he will clear our paths of any trouble preventing us from getting to His love.

Messages like these can sometimes be confusing for me because I know we all fall short and can never do enough to earn God's grace. How then can He say if you are obedient then I will grant you peace? This must be a trick. We are eternally in God's great grace but when we are disobedient we experience a certain discomfort, a level of insanity that disturbs our glory. Listening to God's gentle instruction enables us to be under his peaceful gaze. Not like a blessing versus a punishment but the gift of the blessing (the anointing).

Every day I am pushing myself to meet His will for my life while I'm still here on earth. Remembering that in all things, God is on my side helps be to focus on the blessings and things I should be grateful for more than the roadblocks I may see because God's plan can never falter.
As you read the 6th chapter of Leviticus - be inspired to cheerfully accept the peace God has granted in acknowledging his instruction over your life.

Be blessed.