Seek Peace and Pursue It

"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife" (Prov. 17:1). This scripture really says a lot. I tell people often that your life is only what the condition of your heart is. That's it. It doesn't matter what you have, where your able to go, who you're with, what you achieve, or what anyone may think of you. The bare fact is that your happiness or lack thereof is always going to be determined by how you feel deep inside. If unrest is the state of your heart then you simply are not going to be happy regardless of what you do or don't do. You may acquire a momentary thrill or high, but it will go flat in a hurry, and you will find once again that you are much lacking. Many have thought that they needed to move somewhere where they can have more peace, but the truth is if you don't have peace where you are, you are going to be taking that condition with you WHEREVER you go. Some people think they need to see the latest movies, have the latest technology, or find the greatest vacation spot; but what folks really need to do is get down to business in their hearts with God and find or re-find the only true peace and rest that exists. Jesus plainly said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you REST" (Mat. 11:28). He said in another place just as plainly, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14). So what might that water be that alone quenches the thirst of the soul of man? He gave us the answer to that as well: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...]" (Jn. 7:38,39). The apostle Paul simplified to us just how it is that we must drink of this living water from heaven: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13).

The baptism that Jesus baptizes honest, repentant, believing souls with; is indeed the only way for man's inner thirst to be quenched, because it is the only way for the condition of sin to be washed away (I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5). Isaiah gave us another aspect of the new birth experience that is very integral to note: "For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear" (Isa. 28:11,12). Jesus gave us the ‘rest’ factor of Isaiah's prophecy in Mat. 11:28 quoted above. Peter gave us the ‘refreshing’ aspect of Isaiah's prophecy that shows us that Isaiah was indeed speaking of the burden of sin being removed from those who believe on Jesus unto receiving the Spirit baptism: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of REFRESHING shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). This is the only rest for the soul that exists my friend, and it is the entire reason that Jesus came to die for our sins, and rise again for us to be partakers of his holiness (Mk. 1:7,8; Acts 1:4,5). If we have not received this experience then we certainly do not have rest and refreshing for our souls. If we HAVE received the experience, but now find ourselves trying to find rest and solace through some earthly means, then we are surely misguided in our thinking and doing. No earthly state in either direction has anything to do with whether we are at peace in our souls or not. The only way to regain lost peace and rest is as Jesus said: "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works" (Rev. 2:5). That's right, we must return to where we first received the Spirit of God, and do what it took to get that rest in the first place. That is why the apostle Paul instructed us like this: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6).

The only way to maintain our first estate of divine love and peace in Christ, is to continue doing things as we were doing that enabled us to first acquire that state. Faith, humility, honesty, and perseverance therein; is the way of holiness and truth which alone preserves the heart and soul in that place of heavenly rest. If we maintain that state of heart, then we can have the testimony that Paul had: "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever [earthly] state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound" (Philip. 4:11,12). The truth is we can do and have some of the earthly things mentioned in the beginning of this article, if we truly have our priority on God, keep our first estate of peace and rest, and don't allow anything to crowd those things out of our lives. But in doing so we should also remember another exhortation of Paul: "And they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away" (I Cor. 7:30,31). And yet another: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15,16). Jesus also said something that should weigh on our minds and spirits as we go through this short, uncertain journey of this life: "And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" (Mk. 4:18,19). That is precisely the wisdom that motivated Solomon to write our text scripture, which for the sake of divine wisdom and power I will copy again: "Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife" (Prov. 17:1). I don't know about you my friend, but all I can say to that is Amen. God bless.