rl69
08-14-2016, 08:00 AM
"The LORD... give you peace." Numbers 6:26
Scripture Focus: Romans 5:1
“If only...”. With those two little words, we send our hearts on a never-ending quest for contentment and peace. We tell ourselves that if only we had that house, that relationship, that job or that vacation, then we would be happy, content, at peace. But the little peace we might experience from those things quickly fades away.
The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and it means much more than the absence of conflict. It means that we are at peace with God and experiencing the sum total of all God's good gifts to His people. While on their journey in the wilderness, the Israelites often said "if only;" if only we had leeks and meat and different leaders. Yet God promised the blessing of His shalom to this group of whiners. He secured the promise of peace by sending Jesus into the world to pay for all their "if onlys". There was no shalom for Jesus as He died on a Roman cross.
As fellow whiners with Israel, we can only come to experience peace from God when we have true peace won for us through Jesus Christ.
Insight: For sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide... Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside." (Thomas O. Chisholm, 1623)
Scripture Focus: Romans 5:1
“If only...”. With those two little words, we send our hearts on a never-ending quest for contentment and peace. We tell ourselves that if only we had that house, that relationship, that job or that vacation, then we would be happy, content, at peace. But the little peace we might experience from those things quickly fades away.
The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and it means much more than the absence of conflict. It means that we are at peace with God and experiencing the sum total of all God's good gifts to His people. While on their journey in the wilderness, the Israelites often said "if only;" if only we had leeks and meat and different leaders. Yet God promised the blessing of His shalom to this group of whiners. He secured the promise of peace by sending Jesus into the world to pay for all their "if onlys". There was no shalom for Jesus as He died on a Roman cross.
As fellow whiners with Israel, we can only come to experience peace from God when we have true peace won for us through Jesus Christ.
Insight: For sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide... Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside." (Thomas O. Chisholm, 1623)