2002-01-01
Happy New Year and Century Dear Ones,
I promised to take some time to recharge my spiritual batteries this week and then to resume sending you my daily messages. So, our Lord has me back after taking me on another spiritual adventure. It’s always an adventure in the best sense of the word, because my Teacher takes me to places I can’t possibly imagine or predict ahead. This week, He was teaching me about peace. Have you ever thought about what peace means to your life and how you might find it? That’s the question He leads me to ask you today.
There are two kinds of peace, physical and spiritual. We need both. Physical peace is often hard to find when a family lives in the same home or is visiting together after having been separated geographically for a period of time. I was forced to realize that total physical peace is isolation, and no physical peace is continual stress. Neither of these is healthy. A balance between the two is best for us. Achieving that balance isn’t always easy. I have read Ezekiel 37: 1-14, the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones, many times and have even taught an adult class on this wonderful book of the OT. The images that it conjures up are amazing. The metaphor of an arid valley strewn with dry animal bones is used here to symbolize the land of Israel which during the Babylonian captivity (586-445 BC) had lost its nationhood due to centuries of disobedience to God. That is isolation! The period leading up to the Babylonian Captivity in which God allowed Israel’s enemies to pursue and eventually vanquish her was continual stress. A loving and compassionate God, and believe me our God is, didn’t give up on Israel. He only wanted to punish her for her iniquities to teach her a lesson. And, that is what the message of EZK 37 is all about. God was leading the prophet Ezekiel to to tell the people that He planned to restore Israel to nationhood, thus ending the first dyaspora (scattering of the people). In other words, His plan was to restore nationhood and peace to Israel. In (5), God states to Ezekiel, “Tell them to I the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them [the Jews]: I am put breath into you and bring you back to life.” God makes good on His promise in (10) when Ezekiel reports, “So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies, and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army.”
Each of us has to grapple with how we can attain that necessary balance between isolation and continual stress in our lives to achieve physical peace. A couple of really useful places to find direction for how to do this are found in the book of Proverbs. We need to put the best source of wisdom we have first, our loving Abba. PR 8: 13, “To honor the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.” PR 10: 18 “A man who hides hatred is a liar. Anyone who spreads gossip is a fool.” PR 11: 3 “If you are good, you are guided by honesty. People who can’t be trusted are destroyed by their own dishonesty.” PR 14: 26 “Reverence for the Lord gives confidence and security to a man and his family.” There are many examples in this wonderful book that I hope you will read and allow to help you find real peace by heeding.
The issue of spiritual peace is equally crucial to our well-being. This is true no matter what your individual circumstances might be. PS 46: 10 “Be still and know that I am God.” The reminder of that citation was a “gift” given to me by both my dear husband and a friend of ours when we first were thrust into the long employment crisis we are still in. It is a reminder that the only real source for spiritual peace is the Lord, and I needed to let Him do His work to bring it to me by opening myself to the Holy Spirit. There are times when that hasn’t been easy, but nothing really valuable does come easy. One great example of this comes from the words of the Judean king, Hezekiah, in IS 38: 16-17. Hezekiah was praising God in prayerful song after the Lord had healed him from a serious illness. “ Lord, I will live for You, for You alone. Heal me and let me live. My bitterness will turn to peace. You save my life from danger; You forgive all my sins.” To truly appreciate how Hezekiah came to these words, it is helpful to remember that he was king at the time that the Assyrians had already conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and had come south with the intention of doing the same to the southern kingdom of Judea. God’s time was not right for Jerusalem to be taken, so He told the prophet Isaiah to assure Hezekiah that even through the enemy had made it to the walls of Jerusalem, they would not attack the city itself. The next day, the Jews saw the enemy dead all around the city. It was also Hezekiah who had Jerusalem’s water tunnel built that was positioned so the enemy couldn’t cut off their water supply and successfully attack the city.
No one understood the impact our loving Abba has on spiritual peace more than David. I’m sure the reason for that is the work on David’s inner self that the Lord did after David confessed his sins to Him. We can see this reflected in the Psalms. PS 4: 8 is contained in David’s prayer for help. “When I lay down, I go to sleep in peace; You alone, O Lord, keep me safe.” These words are even more poignant when you realize that David was being chased and hounded daily by Saul, after Saul had lost God’s authority to be king of Israel. PS 29 is a song about the voice of the Lord in a storm. PS 29: 7-11 “The voice of the Lord makes the lightning flash. His voice makes the desert shake; He shakes the desert of Kadesh. The Lord’s voice shakes the oaks and strips the leaves from the trees while everyone in His temple shouts, ‘Glory to God!’ the Lord rules over the deep waters; He rules as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people and bless them with peace.” David’s acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty here is important, as is his understanding of the real Source of hope and peace (the capital “S” isn’t a typo). That David understands “He rules as King forever” has huge implications for us. Think about the hope that brings!
Have I left you with a cliffhanger for tomorrow’s message? I admit it; I have. There’s so much more to say about the importance of peace in our lives, that there is more to come. In the meanwhile, join me in this prayer:
PRAYER: O Lord, thank You for giving us so much clear direction in Your Word about the importance of peace in our lives. You are to be praised for being the greatest Source of peace we can have. Help us to recognize that and to be guided daily to the wisdom and direction You have given us through prayer, the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit. Teach us to make the prioritizing decisions we must to put You first in our lives. In Christ’s name, amen.
Peter and I send you our love and prayers that you will find ways to discover you can have real peace in your lives, even if you are facing a crisis. May God richly bless you.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn