Peace with God

The first aspect of peace that we mentioned on 1 January was peace with God. I would image that most reading this little article have found such peace. Peace with God came in the Old Testament through obedience, but all have failed to maintain the obedience necessary, so God sent a gift of His Son. Jesus came to establish peace between us and God.

Believe, Profess , Make Peace

When we accept this gift, given out of love for each of us, and profess our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, who died and rose again to atone for all our disobedience, we then make peace with God. The blood of the Son has been used to eliminate our short fallings and reconcile us to God. Romans 10:9 says, ‘If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ It is so easy and yet so profound a step to take. The profound being that we must trust and believe. Or maybe the profound is that God himself has reached out to us; He holds his hand out to us: Jesus. We need only respond. There is no doing but only believing.

Obedience

I suppose we could say that obedience is no longer required, but rather out of love we seek to please him and do indeed obey. We understand His love and seek to show our love for Him in obeying his commands. Love God and neighbor of primary concern.

Peace with God

In this acceptance, we have accepted the gift of peace from God. It is never far away. And even when we have turned our backs, or disobeyed, we have the opportunity to re-establish peace. He is ready, always ready and willing, to forgive and again wipe away the distance between us and Him.

The seasons of my life have led me near and far from Him. I recall being so very alone when I went off to university. I wasn’t sure He was there. But I longed for him and came back to him, sought him to fill those empty places. Too bad it took years. But that too is full of lessons that surely He taught, after all He is sovereign and was there even when I didn’t ‘feel’ him. I have learned to closely grasp the knowledge that I need not feel him to know he is here.

If you have not yet accepted this gift of God to get right with him and be at peace with him, I invite you to now. If you have read this and realized that you have been distant, I invite you to draw near. Repeat these basic words, eliminating the sin that separates us from God, and be at peace with Him.

Prayer

Dear God, I accept that you sent your Son Jesus Christ to die for me on the cross and be resurrected to wipe away my sin and reconcile me to You. I turn from my short fallings and sin and ask you to fill my life. I give it over to you and ask your Son to lead me in his ways and will, that I may be more like him. Establish your peace upon me. Thank you, God. Amen.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ - Romans 5:1