Power for Peace

I've been practicing peace this summer. It's been refreshing and healing, but hard. You see, my natural default is worry, anxiety, and fear. I'm not proud of that, but I'm learning that this is one area where God is transforming me and making me new. And that's a good thing. (Shedding pride is a good thing, too, by the way.)

Most of all, I am learning that when I invite the real presence of God into each area of my life, I am inviting the very Prince of Peace, and I am grafted into Him. While this battle happens in my heart, it starts in my mind. Remembering truth. Resting in God's promises. Relying on what Jesus accomplished for me. Only then can I produce the fruit of the Spirit that I so long to grow. Only then do I experience peace.

Romans 8 explains it so clearly:
"For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

When I work from my flesh, I cannot please God. Me, the people-pleaser, wanting to please everyone else but the God in whose image people are even created. How easy it is for me to forget that without faith it is impossible to please God. Yet, how do I even stop living from the flesh and instead live by faith? Thankfully Romans goes onto say...

"You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness..."

and then one of the most incredible power-packed verses of truth--

"...If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."

Here I find the ultimate promise of new life, new peace, new hope. The resurrection of Christ. The power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me through the Spirit. Unbelievable! Here is power for life and peace. For me. For today.