How often does peace escape you? How often do you feel anything but peace? Why do you think that is? Is it due to a trial or struggle? Is it due to being frustrated or feeling angry? How quickly does peace return to you? Are you leaning on God?
Our peace can be fleeting. Especially so when our peace does not come from God. Going through struggles and trials can zap us. Frustration and anger drain our peace faster than a rock falling down a cliff. Finding that peace again can be a long time coming.
Yet we can have peace all the time when we lean on God. When we remember we are justified by our faith, peace comes with it. Why? Our faith in Jesus and Him providing our peace. We will experience struggles and trials. But they don’t have to take away our peace. And they won’t when our peace comes from Jesus and knowing that we are justified by Him.
Not only do we have peace, but our justification gives us hope. Not just any hope or wishful thinking, but a hope of sharing in God’s glory. A hope that is based on a promise. All of this is provided in God’s grace. It is his grace that allows us to have faith. It is because of his grace that he promised us justification and glory.
And if we want to boast about anything, we can boast in our hope and God’s grace. Anything we do, anything we accomplish is because of God’s grace. It is because he has granted us the ability and skill to do so.
I pray we all know we are justified by faith. I pray we accept the peace of Christ. I pray each one of us know it is by the grace of God that we have peace and hope. You are justified by faith. Accept the peace of Christ. You are covered by God’s grace. Put your hope in God.
Romans 5:1-2: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
Marty Pressey 