PEACE IS A KEY

Biblical peace is more than just the absence of conflict; it is taking action to restore a broken situation. It's more than a state of inner tranquility; it's a state of wholeness and completeness. ... God is the source of peace, and one of His names is Yahweh Shalom (Judges 6:24), which means the LORD Is Peace.

Psalms 34 says: “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Pray: “Father, take away this spirit of lust and help me to seek peace.”

We seek peace by planning to be peaceful. Peaceful with our spouse, coworkers, family and friends. We work at it and pray about it often.

Psalms 34 starts out: “Turn away from evil”. Dr. Lawson said, “If you keep sinning, and don't stop, you are going to blow up your life. Secondly, sin steals our peace. Going to war with sin increases our peace and contentment. If we will keep our mind clean and pure, we will have peace that passes all comprehension.

Proverbs 12 says: Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.” My daughter (The one I call the happiest person in Michigan) always makes peace with everyone. She also has joy more often than anyone I have ever known. The Bible was right again.

Matthew 5 says: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

I want God's blessing. Maybe I should memorize this verse. Next, the Bible promises that if we follow the example of Godly men that the peace of God will be with us. Who do you know that you can learn from?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. — Galatians 5:22

Peace is listed in the top three characteristics of the fruit of the spirit. Without love, joy, and peace, there is little hope of accomplishing forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control. All of those characteristics are predicated on the love, joy, and peace of God.

You can memorize verses on peace at https://www.openbible.info/topics/peace

A lack of peace leads to a fall. Focus on getting and keeping your peace. We need to be at peace before we turn on the TV. We need to be at peace before we sit around daydreaming. Repentance plus a determination to change starts to lead us back to peace. Peace starts to lead to self-control. Self-control leads to success.

 

Pray for peace and contentment. His peace will guard your hearts and mind. Pray about everything. Fix your thoughts on Jesus. When temptations arise think about Jesus on His cross.

Resist is the wrong word. Replacing and refocusing is what we need to have the habit of doing. Always learn better ways to fight temptation. Wise people learn and store up knowledge. Hosea 4:6 says: My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.

If I always pray to be more filled with peace and love, what don't I have time for? Satan really doesn't have time to try to tempt a person when they are busy doing what God wants them to do.

Matthew 5:9 ESV
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

When we pray and focus on peace we start to be blessed. Then we understand that life is better God's way.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”

Repent, give thanks, then ask for peace. If we have perfect peace the need for satan's silliness starts to decrease.

Isaiah 26:3 ESV
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

This week was tough for me, and my challenges are not over. But, now I am going to add this verse to the verses I meditate on so that I will increase in peace and contentment.

 

We can learn a lot about quitting from smokers. When smokers with severe addiction quit it is a mental nightmare. Their “habit” is smoking without thought when they wake up, smoking as they drink coffee, smoking when they get in their car, going on break, as well as a million other times.

To quit they develop tricks to make up for what they are used to. One example is that they always held a cig in their left hand while drinking coffee with their right. Now they squeeze a ball while they drink coffee.

For lust, examine when, where, and why temptation explodes. When and where is it part of your routine? What exactly are you going to do differently in these situations in the future? Start working on the #1 thing that makes u fall and then add other things.

For example, you start getting worked up at work. It is vital to have an exact plan for these situations. You might have prayers ready, and you pray with all your might. You might have articles picked out that will help you the minute you get home. You might plan to have Bible study and prayer the second you get home.

Quitting is like being an expert car mechanic. They know the exact tool they need to use to solve the problem. Turning from lust is a top 5 tool. Fill up your quitting notebook with ideas and potential tools to attack weaknesses in your routine.

If you find an article that is a perfect “tool” for you to find freedom consider highlighting it or taking notes. Especially if it is based on God's Word, do everything you can to get it “Into you.”

How will you prepare to “Be ready” in these situations? It is impossible to prepare too much.

Being ready is a key to peace.

 

Yesterday I pushed turning from lust. But, if 100% of our thoughts are either lust or turning from lust, it may be a rough battle. Some days we are restless, frustrated, wanting to go back to our destruction. So yes, start with turning from lust and fighting lust, but quickly transition to something like insisting on having peace and contentment in your life.

Second, yesterday was a disaster for me. I fought back by mentally listing 5 things to be thankful for. That did really help, but in hindsight, I could have turned my day completely around if I had studied peace.

Third, think... What would Jesus do if He had my current problems? What would Paul do? How would he think, and react?

Fourth, David was a disaster, then a great example. When you need peace, read a Psalm, or, search “Best Psalm for Peace.”

Fifth, quitting sin is vitally important. And, being the person who is a shining light handling life's problems is vitally important.

Finally, it is shocking how we can fight back life's challenges when we attack with scripture and prayer. Plus, doing that is a great attack on bad habits.