Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Peace is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)
“I don’t feel like praying.”
“I’ll get to church next week.”
“God just doesn’t seem real to me right now.”
“We should probably find a church for the kids.”
Have you ever found yourself thinking or saying these things or similar?
Perhaps there is little significance in the words. However, articulating these thoughts could be symptomatic of a deeper issue:
You are lacking peace with God.
Deflections, excuses, busyness and more can all be reasons we drift from God. It’s not just that we “got busy,” but subconsciously we really don’t want to be around God. A person may just say, “I don’t believe in God anymore.” Or they may concede, “They should…but just don’t see the need for it.”
Perhaps the real reason is they have no peace with God…and are concerned what he would communicate to them if they interacted with him.
After the first sin the reaction of Adam and Eve was to hide from God.
Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
God hadn’t changed, but the behavior of Adam and Eve broke the peace they enjoyed with God.
This reality happens in human relationships. If you wronged someone, or they wronged you and their is a relational strain, the natural tendency is to avoid that person…or hide from them. (Why do fugitives run from the law? They know their behavior has broken the peace between them and their community!)
So an avoidance of God, in whatever fashion for whatever amount of time is a sign of a lack of peace with God.
The solution?
Perhaps we think we can do more good to balance the scale, try harder or do better than most others…but the reality, our performance, since it lacks in perfection, will always leave a question of whether we have peace with God.
So what we cannot establish on our own, God does for us. He takes the initiative and does the work to establish peace with us. How? The Apostle Paul describes:
Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
What reestablishes peace with God is the perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Feel a lack of peace with God? The place to look is the cross and hear God say to you, “You are forgiven. Jesus died for you. We are at peace.”
And then you don’t have to hide from God ever again!
Apply: Evaluate your relationship with God. Are you close to him or avoiding him? What unresolved sin can you take to Jesus at the cross and hear his words and see his work of forgiveness?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for establishing peace with my soul through the blood of Jesus. AMEN.