Dec 22 2024

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.

In this verse, Paul tells the Thessalonians that the Lord is the Lord of peace, that He will give them peace, and He will be with them always. Regardless of where we are in life today, I think we can all benefit from reflecting on what it means to have peace and know that the Lord is always with us.

When you hear the word peace, what comes to mind? I picture something that is still and calm. There's nothing upsetting or jarring; everything is gentle. Well, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is not interested in chaos or turbulence. Rather, He is after steady hearts and minds. Knowing Him leads to peace in our lives.

We can have peace in Jesus because we know that our futures are secure in His hands. We know there is nothing we can do that would separate us from His love. Jesus sealed our fate when He died on the cross for us, making it possible for each of us to have a relationship with the Lord. This relationship is sustained through faith, not by works, and so we know there is nothing we can do that would make us lose our salvation.

Because of this, we can rest in comfort, knowing that the most important thing in our lives is untouchable by the world. When we're facing difficult circumstances, like uncertainty, pain, hurt, or loss, we can take comfort in knowing that the Lord will help us have peace that is beyond our comprehension because it is not of this world. It is far, far above it—and far more precious than anything this world can offer because it reminds us that the Lord is always with us.

Dear Lord, I thank you for being a God of peace. You are my salvation and my strength and you are the reason that I can dwell in peace even when my whole world seems to be falling apart. I thank you that I can rest and know that you are God and let that bring an end to my racing thoughts. I am so glad that you are God. In Jesus' name, amen.

Dec 21 2024

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. :

In this verse in Lamentations, we find a great encouragement: The Lord will never fail us and He will renew us every morning. This begins when we recognize that the only reason we have the lives we do is because of God's willingness to show us mercy. We deserve to be consumed because of our sin that forever separated us from His presence. But the Lord decided to show us mercy and Jesus died on the cross to save us.

Every day of our lives is evidence of this mercy. His compassions will never fail. He will forgive us again and again and again and again. This is because Jesus' death covered every single sin. There is nothing we have done or could ever do that was not paid for on the cross. God's wrath disappears when we call on the blood of Jesus to cover us.

Because of this, the Lord's mercies, are new every morning so we can approach every day as a new day. We don't have to live in the shadow of yesterday, trying to make up for something we did or didn't do. Instead, we can rest knowing that we are totally secure and totally free exactly where we are with the Lord morning after morning.

The Lord's faithfulness is great. All His promises will be fulfilled. When He said in Philippians 1:6 that He would be faithful to complete the good work that was begun in our hearts, He meant it. Each of us can look forward to a day in Heaven when we no longer struggle with sin. We can look forward to the day when we are with Him every morning in an even deeper way than we are now because there will be nothing threatening to separate us. He is faithful and we can rest in Him on the journey. His mercies are never ending and they never fail.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for mercies that never run out. Thank you for the kindness that never runs dry. Help me to embrace the reality that I am covered in the blood of Jesus once and for all and that all my failures are covered in grace. Help me to know you more and help me to dwell in your presence each morning. In Jesus' name, amen.