The Road to Peace

It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? The uncertainty that grips America only grows, it seems to me. The election in November indicated the fear that runs deep among us. In 2008, the mantra that drove a political earthquake was ‘change.’ Two years later, the people abruptly reversed course. Nobody is predicting good times for us any time soon. A decade of war has not produced any kind of security. If anything, the rumbling of the war machines has increased in volume.

Here on the edge of a brand new year, I want to take you to a promise that is a prescription for peace, a reminder for those who love God that He is greater than economic cycles, than men of evil intentions, than disease, than famine and drought. We can choose to live peacefully even in troubled times. No, we are NOT detached from this life, escaping to some retreat in the mountains or hiding in front of our television from the real world. We do not find our peace in denying what is going on around us or even in us. Our serenity comes from faith that is anchored in the eternal love of our Father.

The prince of prophets, Isaiah, who saw the Kingdom of God, who was moved by the Holy Spirit, gives us a word for a New Year.

"Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you. …

Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. …

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." (Isaiah 35:3,5 8-10, NIV)

Here’s what I hold onto from that passage:

God comes to those who love Him.
God restores and renews.
God makes a Way, secure and blessed, for us to go Home!

That, disciple, is the road to peace.

Are you walking the highway of Holiness?
If so, then trust and be at peace.
If not, then take the on ramp through Christ and set your course for Zion, our eternal home!

_______________

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world
Of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord,
None but Thee.

When my feeble life is o'er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o'er,
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

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