STEPS TOWARD PEACE: CUT THE STRIFE!

STEPS TOWARD PEACE: CUT THE STRIFE!
One of the prices you will pay to have REAL PEACE in your life is to give up strife! You cannot possibly be at peace in your life if you are in strife with someone.

Prov 13:10: Through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom. Sometimes, we "assume" someone means one thing when they really said another. So, we become offended....and strife has a place to enter into our lives. We cannot be at peace and have strife at the same time.

Let's start by getting rid of this type of strife in our lives. 1) Assume the BEST instead of the WORST about a person. 2) Give the person the BENEFIT of the doubt. Don't you like BENEFITS? I know I do. 3) Satan loves to TWIST what someone says into something they didn't mean before it hits your ears.

One of the peculiarities about us humans is that we often judge people by our own opinions of what we would do or say. OUCH! This often is the result of past hurts or the way we were raised, causing us to preceive life and people in a certain way. Ask God to heal you of these things and to give you HIS EYES, HIS EARS and HIS HEART. You will be amazed at how much strife will fall from your life when you stop judging people according to your ways, deeds and expectations.

Always remember: Gal 6:7: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Sow PEACE...reap PEACE. Sow strife.....reap strife.

REAL PEACE = REAL TRUST

I am absolutely miserable when I am not walking in peace in my life. I don't know about you, but I will do just about anything to have peace. Now, I am NOT talking about compromise here, because compromise will not bring you real peace....only temporary peace....simply because you have "temporarily solved a continuing problem".

I am talking about peace, not as the world gives, but as God gives, the peace that passes all understanding, brought to you by the Prince of Peace, who came to bring peace to the world as hearlded by the angels 2000 years ago.

I often think of peace as being the absence of trust. When we are able to absolutely: "Trust (lean on, rely on and be confident ) in the Lord and do good; so shalll you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed........Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.....Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself - it leads only to evildoing. For evil doers shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord [in the end] shall inherit the earth." Ps. 35: 3, 5, 7-9

There are conditions in this scripture for us to have peace: WE MUST TRUST, and do good, commit our ways to the Lord, be still and rest in the Lord, wait for the Lord, don't fret because of people who are evil and "seem" to be getting by with it. Then, meeting these "conditions" you will have peace: dwelling in the land and being fed as He brings good to pass and causes you to inherit the earth.

So.....who are you relying on, leaning on and have confidence in? What you can do, what your boss can do, what your spouse or friends can do.....or what God can do?