Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord
Pursue peace, rest, quietness with all.
Pursue holiness, sanctification, purification with all.
Do we do this? Do we seek to have peace with all? Do we seek to have holiness with all?
Generally we do seek a peaceful existence with others. Not many look for angst. Angst just seems to come about though doesn't it. A simple tone of voice can change a peaceful discussion into angst. A touch of condescension, or even perceived condescension can ignite anger, can create upset. Isn't it true that the people who know us best know exactly how to upset us? And isn't it true that even if the people we know best aren't looking to upset us we feel free to take out our irritations on them? How likely are you to have an upset with someone you work with as opposed to having an upset with someone you live with? It'd be great if there wasn't this freedom of familiarity that allowed us to abuse each other and get away with it, because that's what it is, right?
We are to follow peace with all, not just with some. It is just as important to follow peace with our loved ones, our families, our friends, as it is with strangers. Some might say a true measure of a person can be found behind the closed front doors, the shut windows, in the private lives a person leads. How many private lives have been exposed where supposedly upright people turn out to be vile? How much shame lies behind closed doors? You know what? There are NO closed doors before God, not a single one. People imagine they're alone, or that they're in the privacy of their choosing that keeps out the public, but in truth we are never alone, never in private. Our most indecent secret acts are known to God.
We are to follow peace with ALL. And we are to follow peace always with all, not just at our choosing. Even through the irritating, even through the ridicule cloaked in harmless teasing, even during the laughter made at our expense, even when we are exposed to blatant injustices and nothing seems fair at all- we are to pursue peace! Peace. Quietness. Rest.
We read all about the dangers of stress these days. Stress causes heart attacks. Stress causes anxiety. Stress causes this illness and that illness. Stress leads to suicide. Stress causes abuse. Stress lead to a nervous breakdown. STRESS! Stress is the opposite of peace.
If we truly embrace peace with all - allowing the irritations, allowing their mental abuse, allowing the ridicule, the teasing, the outright injustices directed at us by others to have none affect other than our promoting peace we won't have stress will we? Ahh but we'd have some saying that bottling up our stress is just as bad and if we don't get it all out with these angst encounters then we'll still get sick from internalizing it all. But we aren't told to bottle up the anger, we are told to forgive.
Choosing to forgive rather than break the peace that could be had by not forgiving is God's way. We can't have peace by bottling up our anger and hurt, choosing to remain silent and sullen, that's NOT peace, that's not quietness, that's not rest. We all know the difference between peace and upset and unspoken upset is still upset- not keeping the peace. Forgiveness bring true peace. Hearing the same old provocations taunting us to upset in the past needs to initiate the call for forgiveness from us rather than the call to angst. The provocations will NOT stop. If they seem to lessen in one point they'll increase in another, we can't forget we live in Satan's world and He will use every opportunity he can to upset us. Satan will change tactics easily so if we wonder why life seems to become harder and harder as we try to grow closer to Christ, well, that's why.
Follow peace with all.
Follow holiness with all.
If we do NOT follow peace with all, if we do NOT follow holiness with all, we will NOT see the Lord.
Harsh words? Harsh truths? We need to grow in Christ constantly, ever growing in grace.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
As rational human beings we really need to use our rational sides so much more. We need to use our spiritual side so much more than we do. Make no mistake it'll be a warfare, an internal warfare. We will react in our flesh nature instinctively but the closer we grow to Christ, the more we study Christ, the more we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, the more we make Christ our all in all the less likely we'll be to react on instinct to the flesh. Imagine how marvelous it would be to act on instinct to the spirit!
Have you ever notice how after you've read something that has inspired you, you react to it for a few hours, a few days even and sometimes a week or two after, but inevitably it seems to wears off and you are back to being what you'd classify as your "normal" self, your "old familiar" self? Sometimes people have a religious experience like that- where they are high on the inspiration of new birth yet when that high wears off- as inevitably it seems to do- and it comes down to applying your new Christian birth, your new Christian life to your every day existence- you realize that while YOU might have been changed the world around you has remained the same. The light that has filled you can't seem to penetrate your everyday life and those around you. Oh, you might see flickers of it in various things, but the joy of new birth in you isn't celebrated by the old unregenerate world around you and often that effect wears you down until your new birth grows old and sometimes the old self you've put off starts to reemerge.
The reemergence of the old self can be shocking to many because many that have gone through the exhilaration of being newly born into Christ believe that it's impossible for it to happen. Some are frightened when bits of the old self start to reemerge and they instantly begin to doubt their spiritual regeneration. What has to be realized is being born again in the spirit awakens a spiritual side in you but it does NOT take you out of your flesh. Your flesh nature does not disappear as your spiritual nature appears. Once your spiritual self is awakened it has to be constantly fed but too many starve their spiritual nature because the world doesn't offer a spiritual all you can eat buffet. The world offers an all you can eat carnal buffet. We have to seek the spiritual that isn't surrounding us. We have to hunt for our spiritual food and make an effort to seek it and then consume it, unlike the carnal feast that awaits us at every turn practically shoving itself down our throats. We have to feast on the spiritual if we want to become spiritual make no mistake about it. If we want to follow peace and holiness with all we have to go to the source of peace and holiness first and feast spiritually on the source only then will we be able to obey and see the Lord.
If you notice in yourself a behavior that is contrary to peace and holiness as soon as you recognize it - ask for forgiveness, don't wait and ask later, do it immediately and seek the source of spiritual food you need to fill you- even if you're not close to a Bible you can feed on the spiritual food of your memory and the word of God you've feasted on in the past. Jesus truly is the bread of life, a bread of which we feed on and gives us life everlasting. The bread of our Lord will never decay, never grow moldy, never harden but remain ever fresh for us unlike bread for our flesh. The bread we are to consume and make a part of our spiritual feast is our Lord's word. We can have this bread with us ALWAYS to feed off of. When we forget we have access to that spiritual food and we stop feeding on it, we leave ourselves open to only the flesh food surrounding us and we are poisoned by it.
Yes, we have to live surrounded by the flesh, the carnal, but we have ever access to our spiritual fount, our spiritual bread of life, we just need to partake of that food as often as we can and most certainly as soon as we notice ourselves acting and reacting to our carnal natures.
The way to follow peace and holiness with all is to be immersed in the peace and holiness of our Savior.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord, in His love now and always.
Amen.
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