PEACE WITH OURSELVES

John 14:27 NLT “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

Last week we looked briefly at pursuing peace but sometimes the hardest person to be at peace with is ourselves! Maybe we’ve made mistakes, even little mistakes but we’re hard on ourselves for not doing better, or for forgetting to do something we should have done.

Last week I bought a little chopping machine and paid at the self service till, but I forgot to get a receipt in case it goes wrong. I had no peace about it so I had to go all the way back to the shop and find a service lady to go back into the till to find the transaction, to print the receipt. She was lovely but I was really kicking myself for something I felt I should have done in the first place! Does anyone identify?🙂

Maybe we’ve said something that wasn’t helpful, or had a bad attitude towards others and we’ve known in our spirit that we were in the wrong, so we lose our peace. Well, the good news is that our loving Heavenly Father forgives us and we don’t have to carry any guilt around with us because we have an advocate in the Lord Jesus so we can be forgiven.

Maybe you blew it in a big way and you’re still carrying the weight of it all, but God has made it possible for us to be forgiven of all our sins, all our failures and weaknesses. It’s what the gospel is all about - forgiveness with God, forgiving others and ourselves as well. 

God wants us to be at peace, and to have His peace that passes understanding every day of our lives, to receive His peace as the gift it is and hold on tightly to it, knowing He has declared us righteous in His sight. Jesus who is our Prince of Peace, paid a high price for us to have it.😊

God never asked us to be so hard on ourselves, or to beat ourselves up. He asked us to repent of our wrong actions, but once we have done that God forgets it, so we can do the same. It’s done and dusted, paid for so we don’t need to be in turmoil any longer. 

1 Peter 3:11 NIV They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. 

The Holy Spirit says it’s time to pursue peace and hang on to it and not allow the enemy’s lies to steal it from us anymore; to be at peace with ourselves. 😊 Amen.

THE BEAUTY AROUND US

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV He has made everything beautiful in its time…

Last week we went a walk and at the bottom of our road were these gorgeous leaves which were absolutely stunning in colour. I just had to take a photo so I wouldn’t forget, and I wanted to share them with you all. Sadly the leaves are all dropping off now and the moment was short lived. The lovely thing was we saw them while they were there and they lifted our spirits. We stopped and noticed how beautiful they were before they were gone for another year!😊

James 1:17 NIV Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights... There are blessings all around us that we will miss unless we take the time to notice them. The ladybird on the leaves, the stark beauty of the outline of the trees in winter against the blue sky. Maybe it’s the giggle of a toddler that makes you giggle too. Or perhaps it’s the blessing of being inside a warm house when the wind is howling and the rain is pouring down.

Maybe it’s knowing there’s a favourite treat in the cupboard waiting for you to enjoy it, or having an unexpected phone call with a loved one. For you it might just be having a lie in on a Saturday morning.

Proverbs 3:6 NKJV In all your ways acknowledge Him …. The joy and happiness is in noticing the hand of God in all our lives, those moments are little gifts He has prepared sometimes just for your benefit and yours alone. I think sometimes God puts things in our way just to see if we will notice them and acknowledge His hand of goodness in that moment.😊

As we go into another week let’s not be too busy to be a people who see the good in things, the little joys that bubble up if we take the time to look, and listen for the hidden things, that others maybe don’t notice so much, and just simply acknowledge it and say, “Thank You Lord. I do appreciate it.” 😊 Amen.