It Ends in Victory!

Well, January is underway...2/3rds gone already. A snowy winter with low temps...I guess that's what winters in this neck of the woods are supposed to be like. It's just that we haven't in a few years, so I got used to mild temperatures and dry Januarys. 

Anyway, as I sit here, looking out my window at the snowed covered grounds that surround me, contemplating that a new semester is about to start, feeling the stress of work and the unknown creeping in once again...I remembered my word for this year: PEACE...and how easily I lose it...sigh...

Why is peace so elusive? 

Maybe this is not your struggle, but for me, peace is a most difficult goal to attain. Often, it feels more like a dream...like a fairy tale or fantasy football...like make-believe or lemon drops, rather than an actual, real fruit of the Holy Spirit. Why isn't the Spirit growing this fruit in me?

Yeah, I said it. The question that has been lingering in my heart forever. Why isn't the Spirit growing peace in me?

...long pause...

I wonder if 2 Corinthians 4: 18 might show some light on my conundrum,

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4: 18

Could it possibly be that part of the problem is that I am too focused on what is seen? Could it be be that I see everything through the lenses of this material world, and I forget that I am just passing through...that this is not home? 

Forgetting about the eternal could rob us from our stability.

Keeping our eyes on the things of this world could cause us to believe this is it.

Obsessing over our circumstances could steal our peace.

Like Pastor Dan said in his sermon yesterday, the thing we have to keep in mind and try to assimilate is that regardless of all the suffering, sorrow, problems, issues, hardships we may face in this sphere, for Christians, "it always ends in Victory!"

We have already won because Jesus is already Victorious and in Him we WIN! That is the eternal perspective. That is, I believe, what Paul is telling us. If we put our faith and our efforts in the material realm, we are basing our lives on the temporary. And the temporary, but definition, is not stable. But I think we do it because, at least if you are like me, we need to feel that we have some semblance of control. And we can only control what we see. So we invest our energy trying to make everything in our world just like so. In reality, however, our energy and time would be better spent in cultivating an eternal point of view. This eternal point of view allows us to see that we are part of God's master plan and that the things that happen to us while we are journeying through this earth are not where we find stability. The stability that brings peace is found on the Solid Rock upon which we stand, and as we trust Him, we let go...because we are confident in His promise that Victory is ours as much as it is His.

I know I am not just magically going to be swimming in the deep waters of the river of peace, completely undisturbed any time soon. However, I believe now, that the Holy Spirit IS working in me even if it is ever so quietly that I can hardly perceive it. But He IS because it is not about me. It is about His design, and I'm just a small piece of it, and as He works in others, He works in me as well...one day at a time...until He calls me home. 

My job in the meantime is to trust Him and to put my hope in the wisdom of His perfect will. Think eternal. Be grateful that He chose me to be a part of His plan. And remember we have already Won!

In the Precious name of Jesus our Christ! Amen!