“Our Daily Bread”   

http://odb.org/2012/07/12/mysterious-invisibility/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht

Philippians 4:6-7… Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  (NKJV)

Anyone who even occasionally reads what I write about God and the truth that is found in the Bible…has probably seen this opening scripture before…  Some may even be saying to themselves…“Not this scripture verse again !!”  And yet, this scripture clearly reflects the peace God has given to me for over 3 years now… I just can’t express through words on a page, how this God given supernatural peace really is a peace which goes beyond any peace our mortal mind can comprehend…

After reading the following scripture in my “ODB” devotion this morning…and then reading the opening scripture in my Q/T personal reading (also this morning)…I knew this was what I was to write on today…Leviticus 26:6a… I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; (NKJV)

The scripture from Leviticus was from the O.T in the Bible…  God had given the Israelites the 10 Commandments, which were etched in two stones by God’s finger (Exodus 31:18), and brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, for the people to follow…  God told the Israelites’ over and over in the O.T that if they followed His statutes, and kept His commandments…God would be free to bless His people, and protect them from their enemies… I just wrote 2 days ago about this scripture from the O.T (Deuteronomy 28:1-14), that goes into great detail about the blessings God wanted to provide to those who chose to obey Him…  Here is the link for this amazing list of blessings God wanted for His people, in return for their obedience…    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deut28:1-14&version=NKJV

The entire chapter 26 of Leviticus was written about God’s promise of blessings for His obedient children…and God’s promise of retribution, for those who chose not to obey God’s commandments and statutes…  Here are 2 verses found in this scripture, proposing the negative side of God…

Leviticus 26:15-16… and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, ¹⁶ I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.  (NKJV)

Here is the link for chapter 26, for those who want to read first hand, what the love and blessings of God, and what the wrath of God is all about…  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lev26&version=NKJV

Some would say that their God would never be nasty or mean…  I am here to tell you that God is a loving and a merciful God… And that God is longsuffering; in letting us sin against Him time after time, without retribution…2 Peter 3:9… The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (NKJV)    …But what kind of a loving Father would God be, if He didn’t correct us, when enough is enough !! 

The key to absolute peace with God, lies in 2 areas…  The opening scripture gives us the first clue, when the apostle Paul writes that this peace comes…“through Christ Jesus”…  Everyone is born a sinner, and unrighteous in God’s eyes (Romans 3:10); and will fall short of qualifying to become a Christian by God’s standards…Romans 3:23… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  (NKJV) 

Our personal righteousness is best described as filthy rags by the prophet Isaiah, including himself, in…Isaiah 64:6…  We must humble ourselves…realizing that we are sinners in need of a Savior, because we can in no way save ourselves; and that Savior is Jesus Christ…as we understand and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ…   (See the attachment at the top)

Once God has graced the Christian with salvation; this absolute peace from God, will only be found in those children who choose to let the Holy Spirit take full control of their lives… I write this statement of truth because of my own personal experience…  God graced me with salvation on 6/02/2002…  But I somehow took back control from the Holy Spirit; and my joy and my peace were gone, until just over 3 years ago…  I got down on my knees, and begged God to take back full control of my life…

Any sin will keep the Christian from being righteous in God’s eyes…  And any peace a person feels, at the same time they are living in sin…is either a false peace because of earthly things they possess…or because God is patient and longsuffering with His children’s sins…

The writer of Hebrews spells out God’s discipline by way of chastising and scourging the ones He loves, in…Hebrews 12:5-7…  But God will eventually catch up to those who seem to be having peace along with their sinning, as described in…Hebrews 12:11… Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (NKJV)

This scripture reminds us, that God will catch up to the sinning, unrepentant Christian in His time… And this chastising will eventually come (though “painful” when it occurs)…but will yield the absolute peace I am experiencing in my own life, when they confess and repent of their sins (1 John 1:9); and are again deemed righteous in God’s eyes…

Heavenly Father, I pray that Christians now living in sin, who read Your Word today, are awakened by You to the fact that unrepentant, willful sinning will lead to eventual chastising and scourging by You…  I pray Lord, that all of Your children will humble themselves, by confessing and repenting of their sins (1 John 1:9)…and that they too can experience this fullness of the Holy Spirit, as they allow Him to control their lives… I pray for this supernatural peace beyond understanding, for all of Your children…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills