Focus: Isaiah 48:18 - KJV
18. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Psalm 81:8-16
Peace is a relative term. It depends on where it is coming from and who the recipient is. For instance, there is the peace that comes from the world. Such is ladened with anxiety and fear as, whatever the world gives is never genuine. For example, in a society where insurgency and stuff are the order of the day, when there seems to be a long quiet, the people assume there is peace. But the moment there appears to be a bang, even if it is not from a machine gun, everyone jumps. However, there is a kind of peace that emanates from the Lord. The recipients are never moved no matter the extent of turmoil they see in the earthly society. Such is the peace like a river. At a time, a whole battalion or more of the Syrian army came to arrest Elisha. The man did not even countenance them but his servant was visibly shaken by their presence. Elisha’s peace could not be truncated by their presence because he knew whom he believed and relied on.
The peace of God passes all understanding. It is available to them that obey the commands of God. Here is how it works: when we obey God’s commands, the Lord appoints His hosts to surround us to forestall anything that may want to tamper with our peace, just like He did for Elisha. However, when we fail to obey His commands, we tend to tell Him we do not need His support and we are good to stand on our own. What that brings is having Him withdraw from our affairs. When God is in our affairs, we experience peace like a river in that He does not only defend but also fights for us. He had allowed rocks to fall from the sky to discomfit the traducers of His beloved before, even as He had allowed all manner of plagues over a nation that threatened their peace at a time.
All the Lord is asking from us today is complete obedience and He would take over our battles to give to us peace that cannot be disturbed. Disobedience to the commands of our Lord is simply a sign of pride. We tell Him to hands off our affairs when we disobey Him. He loves us and will prefer we stay in obedience so that we do not keep asking where was God when something happened. The tendency is for the devil to lie to us that God has not been there for us after all, whenever we go through the consequences of our disobedience which consequences are the handiwork of the devil himself. Meanwhile, if we reason deeply, we will discover that God is faithful, but we drove Him back in our disobedience.
SOLUTION: Please endeavor to obey every command of the Lord that you have of Him. Let no one deceive you: for as long as you remain in obedience, He will never leave nor forsake you, no matter what. He will however, not deny Himself. If you tell Him to get off, you cannot expect the peace He offers which cannot be troubled.
Please pray:
· Give thanks to God for always defending you against the turmoil of the world
· Ask that the Lord may forgive you of your disobedience in times past
· Ask the Lord to please restore to you the joy of salvation which includes peace like a river
· Pray God to give you rest on all sides that you may always experience peace like a river
· Ask for your daily bread, please
If you are blessed by this post, kindly share with your contacts, as well as others, that they may be blessed also. Thank you and may God bless you abundantly as you do so, in Jesus’ name.
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