“Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]” 1 Peter 3:11 (AMP)
Don’t just hope for peace to find you. Don’t just sit around saying, “Gee…I wish I had peace in my life and in my mind.” Peter tells us we must pursue and go after it. We need to crave peace. And once we’ve grasped it we should fight to keep it!
I’ve mentioned before how that all those little pesky things that happen (lost keys, nothing to wear, caught in traffic, out of gas, burnt dinner, etc…) are Satan’s way of trying to rob you of your joy. Well, it is also safe to say that these tactics are intended to rob us of our peace. And when we give up our peace (it truly is our choice to give it up) we lose power and effectiveness. Our witness suffers as others watch us spiral out of control.
Whether you grumble, huff, stomp or scream, it is hard to share the love of Christ and set a good example for your kids and make a happy home for your family while allowing every little thing to send you into a fit. (I am preaching to myself right now as much as anyone. I’m not a screamer, but I’m a huffer for sure. I’m good at getting all worked up about something small and then getting upset with myself for getting all worked up. It’s a mad cycle that creates quite the stressful atmosphere. I trust I’m not alone.)
The number one way we can fight against the “peace getters” in life is to follow Christ’s example. How did He fight Satan? (Matthew 4:1-11) Please take a minute to read these verses.
Three things jump out at me here. 1. He fought with the Word. 2. He used scripture He had obviously memorized. 3. He spoke these things out loud.
I’ll pick up here in the next post. If you get the chance over the next few days, take some time to read this again and see if you can identify the “peace getters” in your life.
