“Come
to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My
yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU
WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My
yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
“Peace
I leave with you; Peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to
you. Do not let your heart be troubled,
nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27
The
second Sunday of Advent is a celebration of the gift of peace! In the movies it often seems that someone gives
a toast to world peace. In a world full
of turmoil, the desire for peace is strong.
Yet, do we every think about what might be waring in our own lives? Many people today have lives that are full of
conflicts family problems, work issues, personal problems, health issues,
etc. These conflicts and issues can
take away our peace of mind and spirit and that alone can rob us of rest. Jesus though brought peace when He came to
earth the night He was born and that gift of peace we celebrate this week. We can have peace with God this Christmas
season.
First,
we need to understand that peace from God is different than that of the
world. The peace comes thru the work of
the Holy Spirit. In John 14:23 it says,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We
will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
The Holy Spirit is a part of each believer’s life and we should be in
God’s word because that is how God through His spirit will speak to us. To achieve peace, we must abide in the word
of God and be obedient to what it says.
Second,
we need to learn from the word, just as what it says in Matthew 11:29-30 about
taking on His yoke and learning from Christ.
The Spirit will guide us obedience and in learning. When we gain
understanding about life or the struggles we are having we grow as people and
there we can find rest which only comes through peace. When, if nothing more, we understand that God
is in control, we don’t have to worry about what is happening. We can obtain the peace which leads us to
rest.
Finally,
sin is a destroyer of peace with God.
Just as when we were kids most of our fights with our parents were
because of our disobedience to them, it is the same with God. I know that sometimes we are burned by things
that are not in our control but how often were we heavy-laden by our own bad
choices and wrong actions. We need let
these things go by taking on Christ, learn from our mistakes and know that
Jesus is gentle and loving. Jesus is
waiting on you and is waiting on you to just let go, letting Him work in your
life. He will give you peace if you let
Him.
Last
week I talked some about Jesus second coming.
Are you at peace with Christ that if He came today you would be
ready? You can be ready and at peace as it
all starts with letting go of self and sin.
We miss so much because we just don’t love, honor, and obey Christ. This Christmas give of your whole self to
Christ, so you can truly say you are ready if Christ comes back today.
All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible. Copy-write 1995 by the Lockman
Foundation, La Habra, CA
Photo by Davidson Luna on Unsplash
Photo by Davidson Luna on Unsplash
No comments:
Post a Comment