The quest for peace!

The quest for peace?
　
Joh 14:26

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh 14:27


Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
What are you searching for in this life? Sometimes I think I am searching for that THING, whatever it is, that will put me at a satisfied state of mind. The good thing is, as a Christian, I have the ability to have that satisfied state of mind just by understanding or focusing on what was done for me by Jesus. I love the jist of verse 27.............Jesus can give us a peace that the world cannot.!

There will always be things in our lives that can hinder the feeling of peace that we have, if we let them, but we have to rememeber that Jesus overcame the world. Since He overcame the world, then we have to assume that the peace He gives is sufficient to get us through the stress of this world.

I know I write alot about stress, but I see people around me and including me that are bombarded with the worries of this life. The truth is that we need to not just read the verses in the bible, we have to know that they can and will help us. Personally alot of my stress comes from always trying to control my life in the hopes that the control factor will somehow reduce the stress on me and my family. I know that sounds crazy, but really I think that trying to control life somehow gives us a false sense of security. The truth is, Gos knows what has happened, and what will happen. He made the world and universe, so we have to understand that there is nothing we will be able to do to cause something to happen that God isn't in control of.

He leaves us Peace! We just need to learn to relax and accept the fact that He is in control of EVERYTHING, not us. I can see the stress relief that would ensue if we would just start being fishers of men, and stop focusing all of our attention on the here and now. We need to start enjoying our time on this earth as best we are able too, BUT our main focus should be telling others about Jesus.

Let's stop worrying about what may happen, and just relax.......just know God is in control not us. None of this will mean anything to you if you don't know Jesus and what He did for you on the cross. If you don't know Jesus, I beg of you to beg God for forgiveness for your sinful life. Understand that Jesus died on the cross in order to pay your sin debt, so you could be given Grace by God. Turn your life over to Him and His will, not yours.

Let's make this new year one full of telling others about Jesus!

Do I Bring Stress on Myself?

Do I Bring Stress On Myself?

1 Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.

Prov 17:1 (KJV)

20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. 21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

Prov 26:20-21 (KJV)

25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat.

Prov 28:25 (KJV)

 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Romans 13:13-14 (KJV)

Bunch of verses this morning.  This turned out to be one of those bible studies where you feel like God is standing in front of you showing you the verses you need to read.  Today what I want to discuss:  what I feel led to discuss are some terms that all kind of fit together.  Strife—Contention—Pride

As I look at my own life, which by the way is really the only thing I am able to really give precise info on, spiritually speaking.  First let’s look at these terms.....Strife—basically it is conflict and the bible talks a lot about strife.  In Prov 17:1  is the main verse I want to talk about right now though.  Please read all of the verses even if I don’t get to them in this message.  I think there is a very wise point that is made in this verse.  He is saying that better is it to have barely enough to eat than to have wealth and riches with STRIFE.  Why would that be an issue?  As I look at my own life and what all my family has been through, I see that most of our problems stem from always pushing for more “stuff”.  I spoke on this thought once before, but can you imagine if we could just learn to be happy with what we already have?  How nice would it be to go to sleep at night knowing that we didn’t have some payment looming the next day or week.

I know many wealthy people.  I have known some in my own family, and the one thing I see, is that besides all of the “new stuff” they are just like me.  They struggle just like me, but sometimes on a more intense level because they have more to pay for.  The point is, if we are not content with what we already have, then that discontentment can and will lead to strife.  It can and will lead to stress. 

Proverbs 28:25 kind of hit me this morning.  As I read my bible, it is always obvious why it is also called a sword.  The truths in the bible will cut right to the heart of the matter.  I tend to me a proud person.  I do try and accomplish things for God’s Kingdom, but a lot of times the human sin of pride comes in, and when it does so does stress.  The verse here is telling me that when I build my own self up I will endure the stresses that follow, but if I put all of my faith in the fact that I am doing God’s work, then the Pride will not be an issue, which also means the Strife won’t be an issue, which finally means that this kind of stress won’t be an issue. 

Romans 13:13-14  These verses are yet another way for us to do away with some of the stresses in our lives.  I also challenge you to read the ESV version of the verses.  It says,” let us walk properly as in the daytime”.  I think this means to deal with people at night the same way you do during the day.  Be the same way during night hours as you are during the day.  How many of us act one way during the day and in front of one group of people, and then completely act different when in the company of another group of people.  Basically, we should act in our nights as if we were in the company of other Christians.

The point to this long blog is this..............There are definite things in our lives that we do that CAN and DO cause us UNDUE STRESS.  As Christians we will always have stress, but it doesn’t have to be compounded with stress we bring on ourselves.  I feel God telling me to chill out more and be more forgiving.  I think I bring on most of my stress by how I live.  Some of you may know what I’m talking about.  If any of you are OCD like me then you know that you a lot of times feel like you have to do everyone’s job.  You get involved in things that are out of your control.  This will cause undue stress.  Anyone out there who knows what I’m talking about, knows that we cause 50% of our own stress. 

The awesome thing is, in today’s verses, we see God showing us ways to release this stress.  Trust in God.  Let Him fix some things in your life.  As we learn to release things to Him, we will also learn that He is in control anyway.  I’m going to pray that God will help me take the following approach:  I am only going to focus my energy on doing the best I can.  Everything else I’m going to turn over to the Big Man Upstairs. 

Sorry for the long blog today, but this helps me to get stuff off my chest and hopefully helps some of you who may go through what I do. 

By the way........If any of you ever want to shoot me an email on anything, please send to sedwardn92@yahoo.com.  In the subject line please put Blog.

The “30 Days of Conviction” ebook seems to be selling more than the paperback, so please, if you want one they are only 3.99 on Amazon.  Give one as a Christmas gift. 

God Bless!