The God of Peace

When we are not enveloped by the peace of God, which has nothing to do with human reasoning or our circumstances (Philippians 4:7), we cannot abide in the rest of God (Hebrews 4:10). Entering His rest is imperative and quite easy (more to come).

Stress is often called the "silent killer". It destroys our body, soul and spirit with its relentless, negative bombardment. We control stress by what we eat, drink, think about, and the kind as well as the amount of activities that we introduce into our daily schedule.

Anxious situations and thoughts keep us in continual turmoil. Our Father God speaks to this issue in so many places in His Word. He used Paul to remind us not to allow anxiety to permeate our thoughts and activities (Philippians 4:6).

Jesus taught us that worry and anxiety cannot change any aspect of our life (Matthew 6:25-26). He taught us that the antidote for the poison of stress is to enter God's rest by seeking first the Kingdom of God. Then, the Trinity will supply all of our needs (Matthew 6:33).

When we focus on the Lord (Isaiah 26:3-4), regardless of the situation going on around us, we allow the peace of God to rule in our heart. Gratitude and forgiveness are two characteristics that help us to access that peace (Colossians 3:15).

When we live in mindfulness of the moment, we view God working out everything for our eventual good (Romans 8:28). By finding items for which to show gratitude, we live in constant praise to our Daddy God, and our inner joy grows incrementally.

With joy in our heart, we have less of a struggle with negative thoughts, stress and worry. We have faith in our Heavenly Father, because of His faithfulness to us in every area of our life. We live in incomparable peace and joy each moment of the day.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to limit our activities to only those in which You lead us to participate. Help us to put Your will above our own and above the constant needs of everyone around us. Remind us to put all of our concerns in Your heart, through turning them over to You every time we find our mind obsessing about them.

Give us the courage to follow Your direction for our life, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel. Remind us to love our self, so that we will have the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy to love other as You love them - nonjudgmentally, whole-heartedly and with Your unconditional Agape love.

Thought for the Day:

Living in the moment, fully engaged in and abiding in the rest of God, we realize that He has everything in His control, and nothing can harm us, or invade our life without His knowledge; He works out even negative issues for our ultimate good. - Romans 8:28

The First and Second Adam

Eternal life is not some future event that we will experience some day. Eternal life occurs within us, as we come to intimately know Jesus, and our God who sent Him (John 17:3). God is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9). He created us in His own likeness (Genesis 1:27; Hebrews 12:9). He claims us as His children (Ephesians 1:4-5). He sanctifies us throughout our lifetime, until we are holy and without sin in His sight. His rich grace abounds in our life, and He gives us His wisdom to deal with every issue we face (2 Corinthians 9:8).

We are born of the first Adam from the dust of the earth, but also born again of the second Adam, Jesus, by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 15:45). God created us as physical human beings, but He also gave us a spirit. He made Jesus the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). God gives us exceedingly great and precious promises of salvation, so that we might be partakers of Christ’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Jesus is equal to God, and He lives in us, sharing His divine nature with us (John 5:18).

God wants to fill us through all of our being with all the fullness of God Himself, so that we may obtain the richest portion of His presence in our life (Ephesians 3:16-19; 4:13). We have the same potential, which Jesus did of becoming spiritual beings, because Christ in us is Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). As we contemplate the Lord’s glory, we are transformed into His likeness with an ever-increasing resemblance (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2). God loves us and shows Himself to us (John 14:21). He called us through the gospel to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

By God’s glorious grace we slowly walk in the divine nature of Christ in us, and we walk away from the corruption in the world (1 Peter 2:2-4). God wants us to fully understand the amazing magnitude of His power available to all authentic Believers. It is the same dynamite power that resurrected Christ from the grave and returned Him to His glory in Heaven (Ephesians 1:19-20). He fills us with this life and supplies us with everything we need to function in unity with or triune God and to accomplish His will in the earth (Ephesians 1:23).

As our focus on our self decreases, Christ increases within us (John 3:30). We are the offspring of God and His divine nature infuses every part of our body, soul and spirit (Acts 17:28-19). God fashions us as new creatures in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:23-24). We are individual members of Christ’s Body and Jesus is our head (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:15). We live as the temple of the Holy Spirit and one with the Spirit of the Lord (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:17). The world knows that God sent Jesus on their behalf, because our life is a testimony to them (John 17:21-23).  

We are crucified with Christ, and therefore, we live in this world for the glory of Christ (Philippians 1:21). Yet, it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us, through us and instead of us (Galatians 2:20). God completely sanctifies us, conforming us to the image and likeness of Christ, His Son (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Jesus gives us the glory, which the Father gave to Him, so that we can be one with Him and with one another (John 17:22). We slowly mature until we share in the divine nature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). In eternity, Christ will even transform our body to mirror His glorious, immortal one (Philippians 3:21). 

Prayer:

Father God, You want us to quit struggling, stressing and striving to be more spiritual (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). You want us to cease from our efforts, so we will enter into Your rest (Hebrews 4:10). You have our life and character in Your hands to mold into the image of Christ. We are no longer a separate entity from Jesus. We are one with You by faith in Your Son (John 17:21-23). Your Spirit transforms our nature through sanctification to share in Your divine nature (2 Peter 1:4; 1 Corinthians 6:17).

Thought for the Day:

Christ became one of us, so that we could become one with Him.