\u201cPeace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don\u2019t let your heart be troubled and fearful.\u201d John 14:27 CSB
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Today we begin a five day look at fear. \u00a0As I searched for scripture, this one jumped off the page at me with its beauty and elegance. \u00a0I am craving peace right now, there is an area of my life where satan is trying to steal my joy, but I\u2019m holding onto my peace in Jesus. \u00a0I refuse to give him a foothold in my life. God is refining me in the process, already, I\u2019m learning God wants me to surrender. He wants me to trust Him. \u00a0It\u2019s an area of my life I have come to love dearly, and God is asking me to give it to Him. You would think that would be easy, because after all, it came from God. \u00a0But if I\u2019m completely honest, I don\u2019t trust God with it. I\u2019m having an Abraham and Isaac moment in my life.
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We meet Abraham in the book of Genesis. He is the \u201cfather of many nations\u201d (Genesis 17:5). Abraham and his wife Sarah didn\u2019t have a child together until they were close to a 100. When they did, his name was Isaac. Isaac is who God was going to create many nations from for Abraham. In other words, Isaac was destined to have lots of kids. There\u2019s only one problem, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him. Back in those days, they did a lot of animal sacrifices in their worship of God. Now God is upping the stakes, He\u2019s asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. He\u2019s asking him, do you trust me enough to give up the one person you love most in this world. And Abraham does it, well, he intended to do it. He takes Isaac to where the Lord tells him too, he gets him on the altar and he raises the knife (Genesis 22:1-19 CSB). Then the angel of the Lord stops him. God found out what He wanted to know. I love the beauty of this scripture: \u201cDo not lay a hand on the boy,\u201d he said. \u201cDo not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.\u201d God found out he came first in Abraham\u2019s heart, that is what God needed to know.
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Sometimes the thing we fear most in life is losing what we love most. When we have Abraham and Isaac moments that is what God is asking: What do you fear most? Do you fear losing whatever it is you love most or do you fear God? Another way to ask the questions is, \u201cDo you trust God with the people and things you love most? Do you truly think He has their best interest at heart, even more than you do? Because that is what it is when we fear God. I can guarantee you, I do not want to face the wrath of God. Just read the Old Testament, that doesn\u2019t end well. But obeying Him, putting Him first, trusting Him. That I can do and want to do, in all things. Then I will have His peace.
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Let\u2019s pray:
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Lord, we crave Your peace. In this world there are so many things that try to steal it from us. There are so many things that try to trouble our hearts and make us fearful. Fill us Lord with the peace that surpasses all understanding. A peace not as the world gives, but only as You can give. (John 14:27 CSB). In Jesus name we pray. Amen
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\u201cPeace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don\u2019t let your heart be troubled and fearful.\u201d John 14:27 CSB Today we begin a five day look at fear. \u00a0As I searched for scripture, this one jumped off the page at me with… Continue reading YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN PEACE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}