WANT PEACE? REALLY?
Who among us has not had a blank space after the words if and when and once?
=Once I get the promotion, ____________. If we could just ____________? When we get into our new offices, _______________.
Whatever goes in any of the above blanks , once they become a reality, would you then be at peace
Or, would those blanks just be replaced with new blanks.
PEACE with God, PEACE with yourself and PEACE with your fellow man.
Is that not the PEACE we all desire the PEACE that truly passes all understanding?
Why then, is THIS peace so elusive?
Am I ready? Are you ready? If any of us knew how to possess it, would we accept it, acknowledge it, and believe it so that we could then.. possess it?
(If you would, hold that thought.)
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, there is a story that is the key to our understanding why most of us would not.
There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption.
A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried.
In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap.
He called out, Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.
But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.
The rich man said, Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.
Abraham answered, They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.
I know, Father Abraham, he said, but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.
“Abraham replied, No, if they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.
There is an old dictum that says, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
That still seems to be the case.
If I am unwilling to accept an answer or a solution to any question I might have about most anything…..I won’t.
And why is THAT?
Oops! Is this another question, the answer to which I will probably be unwilling to accept?
Well, could be. Here it is nonetheless.
It is because of our nature. We have a rebellious nature.
We are naturally averse to accepting and thus believing anything we have not seen with our own eyes, touched with our own fingers, smelled with our own nose, tasted with our own tongues and which our brains or our minds are not able to understand or which, in a more current vernacular, doesn’t compute.
There is another reason. Just as, for example, a toaster will not toast unless it is plugged into a power source, we are unable to accept anything that doesn’t compute unless we are plugged into the power that will enable us to download it. In other words,
we cannot and will not accept it, acknowledge it, nor understand it…..ON OUR OWN.
Being ON OUR OWN, began a long time ago, in the Garden, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. That act of disobedience severed the power cord. It severed the “relationship”. And it’s the power that is in THAT relationship that makes it possible for the toaster to toast, and for us to possess the “peace that passes understanding” (Phil. 4:7)
That source of power is God Himself. It comes to us through His Son, Jesus Christ and the one who enables us to download it is the Holy Spirit.
Are you still holding that thought? Here’s why.
Without this relationship, the PEACE we seek will escape us. It will not be possible.
And how do I enter into and possess this relationship?
All you have to do is to desire it, believe it is possible and then surrender to the power that will make it happen.
OH! REALLY? Hmm
P.S. And just how do I do that?
Get on your knees and ask God to help you. He will lead you to someone who’ll point you in the right direction or lead you to someone who can.