My Peace I Give to You (and other devotionals)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. (John 14:27)

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains.

The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract’s spray, sat a robin on its nest.

The first was only stagnation; the last was rest.

Christ’s life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that ever lived: tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time until the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there.

At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when the human bloodhounds were dogging Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, “My peace.”

Rest is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church; it is the repose of a heart set deep in God.
—Drummond

My peace I give in times of deepest grief, 

Imparting calm and trust and My relief.

My peace I give when prayer seems lost, unheard; 

Know that My promises are ever in My Word.

My peace I give when thou art left alone—

The nightingale at night has sweetest tone.

My peace I give in time of utter loss, 

The way of glory leads right to the cross.

My peace I give when enemies will blame, 

Thy fellowship is sweet through cruel shame.

My peace I give in agony and sweat, 

For mine own brow with bloody drops was wet.

My peace I give when nearest friend betrays

Peace that is merged in love, and for them prays.

My peace I give when there’s but death for thee

The gateway is the cross to get to Me.

~L. B. Cowman~

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His First Choice

You are God’s child. He saw you, picked you, and placed you! Jesus said, “You did not choose me, I chose you!” You are God’s child. Replacement or fill-in? Hardly. You are His first choice. The choice wasn’t obligatory, required, compulsory, forced, or compelled. He selected you because He wanted to. You are His open, willful, voluntary choice. He walked onto the auction block where you stood, and He proclaimed, This child is mine!
1 Peter 1:19 says He bought you, “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” You are His child forever. Your struggles will not last forever—but you will. The promise is in 2 Timothy 2:12: “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” Believe it. Clutch it. Tattoo it on the interior of your heart!  You are God’s child.

~Max Lucado~

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Is the Choice You’re Making Questionable?

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“… for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Now, what does that mean? It means any action that is not motivated and done by complete faith in God is sin. Anytime you do anything you’re not absolutely confident is God’s will for you to do, if you have a doubt about doing that thing, whether the thing in and of itself is right or wrong, you’ve sinned.

A man was in the back bedroom getting dressed. His wife was out in the living room talking with a friend. He yelled out, “Is this shirt clean enough for me to wear?” Without hesitation, she said “no” and went on talking.

After a while he came out, buttoning up another shirt. He asked, “How did you know that shirt wasn’t clean without looking at it?” She said, “If you had to ask, it wasn't.”

Now, that's what God is saying here: whatsoever is not of faith (that you don't have confidence in) is dirty. If it's doubtful, it’s dirty. Leave it alone.

ACTION POINT:
Friend, we ought to give God the benefit of the doubt, and if we think it may be wrong, we should leave it alone until we’re sure that it is right. 

~Adrian Rogers~

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Psalm 76:3

There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle.

Our Redeemer's glorious cry of "It is finished," was the death-knell of all the adversaries of His people, the breaking of "the and the battle." Behold the hero of Golgotha using His cross as an anvil, and His woes as a hammer, dashing to shivers bundle after bundle of our sins, those poisoned "arrows of the bow"; trampling on every indictment, and destroying every accusation. What glorious blows the mighty Breaker gives with a hammer far more ponderous than the fabled weapon of Thor! How the diabolical darts fly to fragments, and the infernal bucklers are broken like potters' vessels! Behold, He draws from its sheath of hellish workmanship the dread sword of Satanic power! He snaps it across His knee, as a man breaks the dry wood of a fagot, and casts it into the fire. Beloved, no sin of a believer can now be an arrow mortally to wound him, no condemnation can now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment of our sin was borne by Christ, a full atonement was made for all our iniquities by our blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuseth? Who now condemneth? Christ hath died, yea rather, hath risen again. Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell's warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance. Sin hath no more dominion over us. Jesus has made an end of it, and put it away for ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Talk ye of all the wondrous works of the Lord, ye who make mention of His name, keep not silence, neither by day, nor when the sun goeth to his rest. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

~Charles Spurgeon~