Peace of God :: By John Lysaught

As I’m sitting here in the middle of the night writing, I’m pondering the times when I had peace in the middle of a storm. I’ve had a lot of storms, too many to count, yet I can only think of a handful of times when I had the Peace of God in them. I won’t bore you with the details of those times, but it saddens me that out of all the trials and tribulations I’ve faced, I can’t tell you that I’ve been at peace in all of them as I should.

Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

There have been times when I have felt abandoned, forgotten, forsaken, and all the other negative thoughts that come with the worry in a crisis when I didn’t know what to do, when desperation turned to chaotic thoughts and actions on my part that were fruitless, to say the least. I turned every which way but to God. Did I forget about God? Yes, shamefully, I did many times because I was so wrapped up in my own drama of the moment that He wasn’t even a consideration. Was this wrong? Absolutely.

It is easy to have peace when the winds are calm and the waters are gentle. I love God and His blessings, and pontificate about all the blessings he has given me. I’m proud to be a Christian and can proclaim that God is a good God. I walk around with a big smile on my face.

But man, when a storm comes roaring up, the peace of God can go out the window in a heartbeat. There is no more proclamation of the goodness of God. There is no walking with my head high. How could I proclaim God as a good God when I’m drowning against my will? When my life turns upside-down, how can I have peace? I’ve learned to think otherwise, but it was a hard road to do so.

There are those of you reading this thinking I’m a bad example as a believer, I’m lost, or you’re nodding your head in agreement because you too are feeling or have felt this way. It has happened to all of us, or will. If you have failed in keeping your eye on God like I have, there is no condemnation. And if you haven’t yet, you will, and there will still be no condemnation. All you need to do is get up, dust yourself off and move forward again with God at your side.

So how do we address this? How do we keep the peace of God in us during storms? After many trials and errors on my part, I have learned to be more proactive in my faith, not reactive. It’s about being prepared for the inevitable and unforeseen. It’s taking the steps to condition your mind and spirit for what will come and training yourself to keep that Peace of God in you, regardless of what comes at you.

The storms in life are the tests we face in our faith. Just like school, the more you study and prepare, the more likely you will pass the tests given you with high scores. One must put the time and effort into studying; and for believers, our study guide is the Word of God.

The Word is not only our guidebook but it also encourages us to do well. When we crack open that dusty Bible on our nightstand, and delve into the words written, we cannot close it without learning something about our Lord and how to live our lives daily and in storms. From the Bible we get the Peace of God. From the Word we are encouraged, and from the Word we are refreshed.

When we face life in a reactive mode, we end up facing the world while spinning and bouncing around like a pinball. No direction, no focus, no way out. We end up facing the world and each day with no plan in hand nor goal in mind. We might as well just put a blindfold on and walk outside because that is exactly what we do when we are reactive to our environment.

Ahh, but when we study the Word, when we enrich ourselves with the glorious words in the Bible, then we can begin to prepare to face each day with a plan and be ready to face the dark clouds coming from the horizon. Only through the study of the words from God can we be prepared to stand boldly in the world and be stout in the ways of God to face adversity.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, says, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”

The Christian life does not offer a life free of troubles; there is no promise of this. Yet with proper planning and preparation of our minds, we are able to face those harder days with the confidence of the Word as our foundation on the outlook of each day. We can be prepared to face adversity and troubles we find ourselves in the middle of.

Each one of us will face challenges. They can be relational, situational, or anything stemming from succumbing to temptations. They aren’t easy to face and they take a lot of effort to overcome. We can fight these battles on our own or we can let God lead us through them. When we face them by ourselves, we will only get worldly resolutions. When we address them with God by our side, we will get godly resolutions. It’s our choice though.

With the worldly resolutions, there is only worldly peace that may come with it. The peace is not enduring. It isn’t peace at all. Their solution may carry slight relief, but anxiety and angst will surely come along again.

With godly resolutions, there is the Peace of God that comes with it. Does this mean you will have an easier time with getting to the other side of the storm? Maybe. But… you will have that assurance of faith that allows you to know that God is working with you for His means to the end. And even if it is difficult, there is hope; and with hope comes that peace we all need.

When we seek godly intervention, this includes prayer in addition to searching the Word for God’s guidance. God may or may not drop the solution in your lap. That is His decision, not ours. Maybe, just maybe, we should seek His counsel through perusing the Word of God in conjunction with prayer. You would be surprised at how well that marvelous Book will give you direction on how to navigate the storms of life when accompanied with prayer.

Prayer is just as important as reading the Bible for guidance, because they work hand-in-hand. A prayerful life is a fulfilling life; and when we give thanks to God and send Him our supplications, we can assuredly know that He loves our praise and hears our cries. God will not ignore us. Our deal in this is to pray, ask, and then listen and wait on God.

When we release our worries to God, pray for His guidance and look through His Word for answers, all together, we must be patient; and having patience comes with having the Peace of God in our hearts.  There is no rushing God. There is no forcing Him to act. He is the great I AM and will move in our lives when He knows it is the right time, not when we think it is the right time.

When we have the Peace of God in us, we will have the patience to wait for Him to help. He may help immediately, or he may help in His time, or He will answer in a way that makes no sense to us. Regardless, He is Almighty; and we just need to have full trust and faith in Him and how He wants us to move.

When we have the Peace of God in us, we will realize there are no barriers to what God can do for us.  We need to work on our part to instill the mindset to have that peace in us, and we must look ahead at possible situations where we will need that Peace of God in our hearts to face those storms that we will face.

johnflysaught@gmail.com

 

The Way to Heaven :: John Lysaught

When we navigate through life, we need a destination to reach, a point of completion in our lives. One must first decide what the destination is in order to begin the journey. Christians have a destination, and that is Heaven with our Lord Jesus and Father. Nonbelievers have a destination, and that is hell.

Jesus is our way. He is the only way to Heaven. Through Him is our access to God the Father. There is no other way to Heaven or access to a relationship with God. No matter how much unbelievers try and search and search, they will not find their way to Heaven, but will find their way to hell.

In John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This doesn’t say by good works, by living a good life, by being kind to others, etc., but says through Jesus. There is no way around this. No loopholes, no shortcuts, or by any other means but through Jesus. If one does not go through Jesus to go to the Father, they are destined for hell.

The world wants people to think differently. Society (those that say there is an afterlife) wants people to believe that they don’t need Christ to attain life everlasting in Heaven. The world tells people if they live good lives and are good people then they will get to Heaven. This is a lie. This is a lie from Satan to snare and trap people to go with him to hell. And people believe this lie!

Look at Romans 10: 9-13:

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

A belief in Jesus is all that is needed. There are no footnotes or strings attached to this. A heartfelt belief is all that is needed. So simple, right? So why is it so hard for people to accept this truth? Where is the difficulty in this? It is from our sinful, rebellious nature and the lies of Satan!

Don’t listen to the lies of Satan. Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with the Father (John 14:6). He is our Savior of this desolate world. He is so awesome that when we stop and take a few moments to ponder this, the awe of Him is almost too much to fathom.

We see in John 6:44 that Jesus tells us, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

That word draw? In Greek it means to “drag,” much like dragging a sack of rocks from one point to another. When we are dragged to Jesus, one of two things will happen: we will respond positively or negatively. We say yes or no to the calling of Salvation.  We choose the world or Jesus.

When we say yes to Jesus, our eternity changes in an instant. We are no longer damned to hell but destined for heaven. It is through our acceptance of the Way that we have access to the Father.  Through our conversion we become sons of God, heirs to Him and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

You get that? We are part of God’s family when we accept the free gift of Grace through Jesus. We become adopted sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:5) and therefore become heirs to Him in eternity.  What a great thing this is when we accept the gift of Salvation!

Remember that Salvation is a gift to us and we can accept or deny this gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” You notice something here? It is said “not of yourselves.” This means that we cannot do anything to affect our salvation.

Verse 9 says, “Not of works.” Nothing one does can earn him or her salvation. Good works, good living, good giving, etc., does nothing for us to earn Salvation. We cannot put a deposit down on Heaven. We could do good deeds and live wholesome lives every single day, but without Jesus as our Savior, without accepting His free gift, we are destined to hell.

This makes nonbelievers angry. They don’t think a loving God would send these types of people to hell.  What they don’t understand is that God is also a just God and people send themselves to hell.

God is a just God. In His justice towards man, it is the sentence of death to those who sin against Him.  And you know what? We are all sinners, and committing sin is unlawful in the eyes of God. We all deserve damnation for sinning against God, but God has mercy on us through the sacrifice of His Son because He loves us and wants us as His own (John 3:16).

God can’t have a relationship with us because of sin, but through Jesus as our sin sacrifice, we are washed clean of sin and are therefore sinless in the eyes of God. This is paramount to our faith. Through our belief and faith in Jesus, our destination to hell changes to heaven.

The world hates us because of this. They hate God; and since we are children and heirs of God, they, by default, hate us.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer for Jesus to call us to our real home with Him. We wait patiently and eagerly for Him to meet us in the air. We are expectantly waiting for that blink of an eye when we will be changed and will leave this horrid world. This will be a momentous occasion in world history. And for those left behind? Well, there are hard times coming then.

We all get to choose our path. God will drag us to Jesus, but it is our choice to answer yes or no to Him.  We choose which way we go: to heaven or hell. We don’t deserve grace; but God gives it freely through His Son whom He gave to be a sacrifice for our sins so that we would be reconciled through Jesus unto God.

What will you do? If you are saved, urge those close to you to heed the call of God. If you are investigating this thing we call Christianity, time is getting short to make that decision. Get off the fence and jump into Christ and what He offers to all of us sinners.

We all make a choice of our destiny. It is which way we want to go, up to heaven or down to hell. Not choosing the way of Christ will lead to hell. Choosing Jesus leads to heaven.

If you want Jesus in your life, now is the moment to ask Him to forgive your sins and accept His free gift of Grace. This is the most important decision to make in your life: heaven or hell. I pray those of you who are reading this choose Jesus.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com