Jesus Always

" ... despite how you feel, despite raging emotions ..."

SOME THINGS won’t fit square in the bucket. No matter how you try to trim them and fold them, they hang out this way and that. Such is disaster. We seek answers of God, and we have a right to seek them. But the answer is always the object hangin’ out in every direction. Only He knows the full extent of it where it makes sense. To us it doesn’t, and it never will.

Anger is justified. God can take it and turn it to something good. Or we can cling to it and let it destroy us. The choice is in our hands. Do we love God and hate evil still? Or do we now act evil, consumed with our hate, and lash out at others? That’s as good as giving God the finger. He can take that, too. He is soft and gentle, but never weak. Our only course of action is prayer. Prayer is communication with Him. It’s conversation. We let it all hang out, and He tucks it all back in. Prayer ISN’T railing. That leads nowhere. So you’re angry. Go scream at God then apologize and actually pray. I’ve done it. Don’t think I haven’t, and I knew when I did that He loved me, and He would turn my unhappiness to joy. There is no joy in some things. For those, we ask peace. He is the God of peace, the God of all comfort (1 Thessalonians 5:23;2 Corinthians 1:3). Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). The Holy Spirit bears the fruit of peace within His children. We have to seek it, though. “Pursue peace,” says Psalm 34:14. Something we pursue we determine to gain. I will have all He will give me. I will share with those who listen.

Who is listening? Is it an angry believer, looking for wood to light? Or are you a study of Him who died for you? Now, how did that make you feel, those two questions? Because that is my point. Are you becoming the church’s persecutor? I thought that was Jesus’ description of the behavior of the world. Who in the body of Christ, your brothers and sisters of all denominations, have you lashed out at? What did you say that was EXACTLY what Jesus would have said, and how did you justify it? Prayer requires more than asking. It requires relying on Him, despite how you feel, despite raging emotions, and tendrils of ugly things which mar your view. We must fix our image of Jesus in place and refuse to let anything or anyone mar it. Because HE DIED FOR YOU BY NAME. Not for the world as a mass of faceless individuals, but for Suzanne D. Williams of Auburndale and Becky and Wayne Combee of Lakeland. Insert your name there and know that He knew you and died. He then rose from death to prove to all men who God is.

He is the same today and will be the same forever – a generous, loving, gentle Father.

PEACE AND QUIET
Peace

• Peaceful life (Proverbs 3:2)
• Peaceful paths (Proverbs 3:17)
• Peaceful because of righteousness (Isaiah 32:17)
• Peaceful habitation (Isaiah 32:18)
• Great peace (Psalm 119:165)
• Peace in the land (Leviticus 26:6)
• Lay down in peace (Psalm 4:8)
• Peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7)
• Peaceful fruit (Galatians 5:22)
• Go in peace and be whole (Matthew 9:22)
• The way of peace (Luke 1:79)
• Peace always by all means (2Thessalonians 3:16)
• Peace in Christ (John 16:33) 

Quiet

• Quiet resting places (Isaiah 32:18)
• Waters of quietness (Psalm 23:2, note)
• Quiet from fear of evil (Proverbs 1:33)
• A quiet and peaceable life (1Timothy 2:2)
• A meek and quiet spirit (1Peter 3:4)
• Quiet mind and heart (Philippians 4:7 TLB)

Image by Алекс Бон from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com