I hope this post doesn’t sound too “preachy.”\u00a0 It is something that has been on my heart and although I mentioned it in my post about\u00a0the Haiti trip, I find myself\u00a0feeling the need to unload my heart just a little bit more.\u00a0 \u00a0So, here it is.\u00a0 Read or ignore, but at least I have gotten it out.\u00a0 I’ll be glad to post scripture references if someone wants them… but many you can find just by doing a search for “peace” in your bible.<\/p>\n
Lately I have been thinking about peace and it’s relationship to humility.\u00a0 Lest I disprove my own point, I will say that I could be wrong, but personally, I am convinced that you can not have\u00a0peace without humility.\u00a0 I’m not talking about happiness.\u00a0 In fact, I think if you\u00a0are determined to\u00a0find happiness, you are destined to never find peace.\u00a0 After all, it is the ultimate act of self service to demand your own happiness.\u00a0 Peace is predicated on humility.\u00a0 You can never have it while concerned with self; while things are under your control.<\/p>\n
Things that drain my peace all begin with\u00a0“I” or “My.”\u00a0 My feelings are hurt.\u00a0 My rights are challenged.\u00a0 I am afraid things may not turn out the way I want.\u00a0 I might be embarrassed.\u00a0 I might lose it all.\u00a0 Real peace comes when you give up the “I” altogether.\u00a0\u00a0When you are crucified with Christ.\u00a0 When, as Peter wrote, you “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God . . . casting all your care upon Him.”<\/p>\n
If it is your life, then you must fight for it.\u00a0 If you have given it over to the one who controls the universe, then you can relax.\u00a0 Jesus himself is our peace.\u00a0 Through\u00a0His humble death on the cross the Prince of Peace\u00a0has reconciled sinful man to a\u00a0holy God.\u00a0 This is the Gospel of Peace in a nutshell.\u00a0 If you are a Christian, then you are not your\u00a0own.\u00a0 You were bought with a price.\u00a0 The same Jesus who humbled himself to a death on a cross is the same Jesus who said “My Peace I give to you.”<\/p>\n
All of this is not to say there won’t be trials.\u00a0 There most certainly will be.\u00a0 But if you can humble yourself enough to place everything, including yourself and your rights, under “the Mighty Hand of God” then you can accept whatever comes your way as under His sovereign control.\u00a0 Sure you may have to fight, but not for yourself.\u00a0 You are already His.\u00a0 On His cause alone should we focus our efforts, leaving the outcome to Him.\u00a0 Then as Paul said, we can have contentment in whatever state we find ourselves, realizing that to live is Christ, and to die is gain.<\/p>\n
The Kingdom of Peace awaits.\u00a0 But we must be willing to give up our rights, humble ourselves and cast our cares on Him.\u00a0 Only then can we truly let Peace rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope this post doesn’t sound too “preachy.”\u00a0 It is something that has been on my heart and although I mentioned it in my post about\u00a0the Haiti trip, I find myself\u00a0feeling the need to unload my heart just a little bit more.\u00a0 \u00a0So, here it is.\u00a0 Read or ignore, but at least I have gotten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[112,131,99],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","tag-humility","tag-obedience","tag-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}