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Our Pursuit of Peace - Becky Maisenbacher

As we embark upon another year, we are usually filled with expectation, hope and desire that the coming year will be greater than our last. We make plans and write goals hoping to fill that place in our heart we often silently ignore. We search for that one item, relationship, job or destination that will finally complete us and fulfill our desires. And yet, we often finish the year, finding ourselves lacking in our quest for completion or wholeness. Scripture instructs us in 1st Timothy 6:6 that "Godliness with contentment is great gain." We may be pursuing the path of godliness, but how do we find contentment?

Looking back I see in my personal quest, the years of striving for identity, success, love, joy and most importantly that elusive place of peace. Each yearly search, like a kind and disciplined mentor, would guide me back to the truth of my inability to achieve that pinnacle of perfection I desired; as life gently and consistently assisted me in recognizing my own insufficiency. You see, through all the mixture of life - the highs and lows - I have come to understand that we have been made to be insufficient. In our failures, emptiness, our loneliness, discouragement, imperfections and unmet longings, we are given great grace to acknowledge our lack to God, so He may fill us with His bountifulness and lavishness. What remarkable and extraordinary love! Our lack for His supply is simply His stunning design process found in His covenant exchange. We give Him our neediness and deficiency and He fills us with His abundance.

Oswald Chambers in his devotional "My Utmost for His Highest" eloquently expresses the divine setups of life, which are not only used to reveal our need for God, but are often constructed to guide us to a place of surrender to His will and sovereignty. He entreats us on page one: "To shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for one thing - our utmost for His highest" (Phillipians 1:20). In addition, Chambers instructs his reader in the ways of God by stating: "God's order has to work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him, and we begin to debate; then He produces a providential crisis where we have to decide - for or against, and from that point the 'great divide' begins." He concludes his devotion with this thought, which I have paraphrased and submit to you for reflection in this New Year 2016: If a challenge comes to you on any given level, consider the possibility of your insufficiency in the situation and surrender your will and lack to Him without question or doubt, that you may enter into His covenant exchange where He will take your circumstances and replace them with His inexhaustible bounty.

As we enter this new year, may you open your heart to recognize your need for Him, as you invite Him, the Prince of Peace into your daily life. And may you be confident that in His goodness and faithfulness, He will fulfill your deepest longings, preserve you in His love and bathe you in His priceless peace.

 

There Is No Fear In My Love

There is no fear in My love. Peace I speak to you. My peace I speak to you. For do you not know that you are My beloved? The light in your eyes that you carry is My light. And the beat of your heart for My creation and for Me - that is My heart. And the knowledge and wisdom that you possess for creativity - it is My wisdom and My knowledge that I place within My beloved. And it is My peace that I desire for My people to also carry. But do you not know that My desire for you is to be a part of My building, of My restructuring of the Tabernacle of David? For I desire all of creation and My beloved to celebrate Me wherever you are, whatever you do, to celebrate and exalt Me. For I am the One. I am the Great One who breaks the bondages of sickness and disease. I break the bondages off of you of poverty. I break the bondages of false relationships. I break the deception of the evil one. It is Me, My beloved, who imparts to you My love.

So do you not know that the love that you carry and you extend into the earth is My love? What great love do I have for My creation and for you! And even though the world becomes darker, which I have foretold, I desire to place a canopy of glory over My houses and over you and your family. For I desire for you and your houses to be places of My habitation. Would you allow Me to inhabit? Would you allow Me to visit and live within you and your home, so as the world darkens you will be a beacon of light to those who cry out in despair. Would you allow yourself to surrender to Me, to that place of privilege, to be a beacon of light to all. Would you give that one cup of water to the divine appointment that I place before you? 

"But I am weak-but I am weak, Lord! It is so scary! I don't know what to do?" My beloved, I am with you! Have I not told you that I am with you always? Have I not told you how I love you - how I adore you - how I align with you - how I walk with you - how I sleep with you and visit you in the night season; and, that My covenant of peace that has been made between us, is to protect you and to provide for you. And even though it seems at times that some say I come at the midnight hour - I come! So, do not fear. Do not fear the events that surround you. I just ask for you to look at Me. Look at Me and look at My face, and look at what I have done before for you. Have you forgotten the altars you have built on the things that I have done for you. The times I have come through for you. The times I have healed you. The times I have blessed you. The times I have given you increase. Do not forget those times, for they are sweet remembrances. They are sweet remembrances of what I desire to do for My people.

So would you surrender today? Would you surrender your fear? Would you surrender your weakness? For when you walk, you walk in My strength. "But I am weak Lord. I am weak." Oh, My beloved, know that even though you feel weak, I have imparted a backbone and a rod of steel within you. And for those who feel too weak to continue, look to Me and allow Me to carry you over the finish line; because My people will finish in victory. My people will finish in victory! And My light will shine forth through you! And I speak to you: "Arise and shine, with no fear and the peace of heaven." Cause your thoughts to align with My thoughts and you will see great victory in the earth. You will see great victory in your life. You will see peace in your family. And the day will come when those around you, your neighbors and visitors, will come to your door and they will say, "What is it about you? What is it about you? What is it about your family? It's so different! It's so different…tell me! Tell me what is so different about you?" And you will open your mouth and you will declare My goodness - My joy - My peace - My safety - My security - My provision - My health and My increase. And one by one; one by one, we will change the world…We will change the world!