FOLLOW THE PEACE. While we were in Tennessee, we went on a cave “hike”. I say hike because we were scaling rocks in this cave. It was huge. There were high places and low, 70 ft. drops. I started out doing well, but we came to a place where I had to use a rope to climb up a slippery rock, in the dark, with a small headband light attached to my forehead. This was within the first 15-20 min or so. My heart was racing, I hit my knee, but continued to climb up until I got to the top. It was about 20-35 foot climb. I made it! Our guide said, “this is the most difficult area”. Whew.
For the next two hours, we hiked through the dark, small climbs over rocks, a few places were slippery, but overall it was good. We saw a lot of neat things and had good conversation. Then I heard our guide say, “Oh. I forgot about this part.” Uh oh. I looked ahead and there was a small passing. There was a 70 ft. drop off on my left and slippery clay that I had to crawl over at a 60 degree angle and then down a saddle to a big rock. On the right side was another drop off. “Hug the wall and go slowly”, our guide said. I couldn’t think about it, I just had to do it.
There was no going back the way we had come. We had to go through (there’s a sermon in there). I don’t remember much except my knee slipped and in that second I imagined sliding down a slippery slope to my death. I’ll I could say was, “Help me Jesus and keep us safe”. I made it to the rock where the first girl was waiting. I practically fell into her arms and she hugged me. She asked if I was ok, and o said, “barely”. She asked me, “Did you have peace this morning on our drive here?” I replied, “Yes”. In fact, I remembered being incredibly peaceful despite going into the unknown. “If you had peace, then you will be ok”. She replied. She was right.
Incredibly, the next morning during Sunday school, we talked about Jesus being Lord of all, and how we make decisions when there’s not a clear answer in the Bible. How do you know which job to take? Or what home to buy? Or when to go or when to just stay put. In my group, a few people said the same thing, “Follow the peace.” Another person said, “When I make a wrong decision and lose my peace, I go back to when and where I first had peace.” This is wisdom: follow the peace. Our Lord left us, but He left with us the Holy Spirit and His peace. “Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]” John 14:27 Follow the peace. If you have no peace, don’t go. Put all decisions before the Lord, even the ones that seem “trivial” and follow the peace. If the peace of the Lord is with you, you will be safe and secure no matter how treacherous or difficult the journey. There’s not enough money in this world worth losing the peace of God that passes all understanding.
If you are full of fretting and anxiety, at what point or decision did you lose your peace? If you are living in a spirit of fear, what caused you to lose your peace? Some of y’all have given up peace for comfort. Comfort is a false sense of peace and is deceptive. Go back to when and where you last had peace and stay put. Follow the peace, “And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) be with you.” Romans 16:20 #runyourrace
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