"Don't have a perfectionistic world view. It makes things harder on everyone. Offering acceptance encourages others to be their best." M. Walker

“Adversity is not optional, but be of good cheer. God has overcome the world.” J. Haney

Unlocking the Gate to the Path of Peace

If you are looking for more peace in your life, in your home, in your heart, there’s one sure-fire way to get it. God has given us the key that unlocks the gate to the path of peace. The KJV puts it this way: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165). Other versions read:

• “Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble” (AMP).

• “You give peace of mind to all who love your Law. Nothing can make them fall” (CEV).

• “Abundant peace have those loving Thy law, And they have no stumbling-block” (YLT).

There’s so much to learn from this verse. In it God reveals a life-changing principle: Gaining and maintaining peace are directly related to loving God’s law. In this passage, according to Gesenius's Lexicon, the word translated love means to desire, to breathe after, to delight and to be inclined to. It implies longing—something that comes from deep within and persistently craves more.

When I first became a follower of Jesus, I devoured the Word, took discipleship classes and went out for coffee with folks just to talk about the Lord and the amazing things I was learning about Him. Over time I attained a certain level of scriptural knowledge, but I think somewhere along the way I came to a place where I subconsciously thought, “Well, I have enough now. I know the basics, and that’ll do. I’m in church at least three times a week. Surely that’s enough to keep me going and growing.” But, oh, the treasures still waiting to be mined in the depths of the Word and in His presence.

As we pass through the seasons and events of our lives, we often experience an ebb and flow in our hunger for the Word. For me, for right now, and perhaps for you, too, it feels like it’s time for the tide to turn, rise and fill the beach once again. Something keeps pressing into my spirit and I can’t shake the thought that if I’m lacking in peace, perhaps the root of the problem is a lack of love for His Word.

Of course, understanding the Word is critical, but more than simply gaining knowledge, Psalm 119:165 talks about loving the law in its entirety. The word law in this passage not only includes Mosaic law and prophetic teaching, but also custom and manner. In our New Testament relationships with God, we are not required to keep Old Testament rites or ceremonial laws, but we are mandated by Jesus Christ to keep the moral law—and then some.

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, He upped the constraints of the moral law. He said we should no longer live eye for an eye, but we should instead turn the other cheek. He taught that if we are compelled to walk one mile, we should offer to walk two. There’s an above-and-beyond principle at work, and the cool thing is God applies this principle in His dealings with you and me. He gives us above and beyond anything we could ever offer Him.

To have peace in our lives, we must love, long for and incline ourselves to instruction and to the customs and manner of living outlined in the Word beginning with all those “be” attitudes Jesus gave that follow after the heart and principles of godly living. When we do this we will reap two outstanding benefits.

First, we will have no means or occasion of stumbling. According to Strong’s Concordance that’s what “nothing shall offend thee” means. When we love the law, we will lack the methods, resources, time or opportunity to stumble. We won’t slip, hesitate or blunder as we walk through the days of our lives, and we will face no stumbling blocks, hurdles or barriers.

That inspires me to investigate further. It seems God must have one of His awesome spiritual principles buried in this passage, and the more I dig into it, the more excited I get. Let’s look at the second benefit. According to Strong’s, the Hebrew word translated peace also means completeness, soundness, and welfare. A further breakdown of the word includes things like safety, health, prosperity, quiet, tranquility, contentment, friendship, peace of human relationships, and peace with God in covenant relationship. OK. I’m signing up right now. I want all that like yesterday.

But wait! There’s more! We don’t just get all that excellent, wonderful stuff—it all comes SUPER-SIZED—in great measure! According to Gesenius’s Lexicon the root word for great means one continuous thing. A continuous outpouring of all that good stuff sounds mighty fine to me, yes, indeed. Strong’s expounds further saying great also means abundant, stronger, and enough. Wow. Think about that. My peace—my great peace—is in abundant supply! It is not just strong, it is stronger—stronger than the influence of things that might take that peace from me and greater in strength than the things I wrestle in my flesh, mind and spirit. The peace God gives me is enough. Enough for what? Enough for anything and everything that comes my way. There is simply an abundance of God’s great peace available for those who love His law.

It’s possible to obey without loving, but that is not the way of peace. We will live in peace when we love, when we breathe after, when we desire, delight and incline to God’s ways over our ways. We have access to the path of peace when we understand this key concept: Peace is God’s rich reward for those who hunger after His Word. I pray God’s peace be with you, my friend, or as I’ve heard my teenager say, “Peace out!”

Chūz - "Choose Ye This Choice"

Some people don’t like to make decisions. Just waiting for them to order in a restaurant can be a test of patience. Others make snap judgments—quick commitments they don’t follow through with. At different times, perhaps, we fall into both of these categories, but taking the middle-of-the-road approach is usually the better choice.

Of course, following Jesus is the best, most important choice of all. For a young person, any person really, looking forward to the rest of your life serving God can seem an overwhelming, impossible goal. We know we’re human and how much we mess up—in our thought lives alone. How are we ever going to make it on the narrow way?

Have you ever heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is one bite at a time. You take a first bite (after it’s been properly seasoned and prepared). Then you take a second bite, then a third, then a fourth…

And how do you complete a journey of 1,000 miles? It begins with that first step, then the second, then the third, then the fourth…

You get the picture.

You can do what seems impossible if you will just make the decision to take the first step, the first bite, and keep going from there—like that little grey bunny marching with his drum that keeps going and going and going.

Choice. You have it and I have it. The question is, what will we do with it? Our lives are made up of choices and consequences. I know I’m probably going to fall flat on my face again before Jesus calls me home. I’ll disappoint people, mostly myself, but you know what I want to make my life’s mantra? “Choose ye this choice.”

You know the verse, Joshua 24:15—“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The thing is, serving God, even life in general, is more than a daily choice. It’s a choice-by-choice kind of thing. Life is one great chain of interconnected decisions. Every decision isn’t critical, but I long to make every choice God-honoring. I want to choose the best choice every choice. “Choose ye this choice” means the next “this”—the next decision I make.

It’s our choice to be sweet when someone gets us riled up and we are burning to just get them told. It’s our choice to give our best effort at work, school or home when it would be so much easier to just do the bare minimum and get by. It’s our choice, every choice, to live a life that chooses God’s ways over ours and over the pull of the world. The really awesome thing is that as we make God-honoring choices, God gives so much back to us in return. Psalm 37:4 says God gives us the desires of our hearts as we delight ourselves in Him. The payback is sweeter than anything we could imagine. God Himself is our reward. He has chosen to love us, and pleasing Him brings a peace, joy and completeness nothing in this world can compete with.

We don’t have to get overwhelmed by the mountain of choices ahead. Just face each one as it comes and make your next choice God-honoring. Before long you will have such a strong foundation underneath you and a habit of good decision making developed that when you face the real challenges of life, you’ll already be set up for success…through the succession of best choices you have already made. And when you mess up, shake the dust off, ask for and receive God's forgiveness and then set your mind for the next choice. God designed you for success, now walk in it, one choice at a time.

“Are we looking for grass (immediate satisfaction) or praying for rain (long-term solution)?” D. Ward

“Sometimes God adds to our lives through subtraction.” M. Walker

“The principle of virtue is a necessary ingredient to bring the promise of God to pass.” J. Sciscoe