The Life of Peace

Hello, I'm Bill Crowder, and I'm glad you could join us for today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional.

I've entitled it, The Life of Peace. In Perth, Australia, there's a place called Shalom House, where men struggling with addictions go to find help. At Shalom House, they'll meet caring staff members who introduce them to God's shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Lives crushed under the weight of addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, and other destructive behaviors are being transformed by the love of God. Central to this transformation is the message of the cross.

The broken people of Shalom House discover that through the resurrection of Jesus, they can find their own lives resurrected. In Christ, we gain true peace and healing. Peace isn't merely the absence of conflict, it's the presence of God's wholeness.

All of us need this shalom, and it's only found in Christ and His Spirit. This is why Paul pointed the Galatians to the Spirit's transformational work. As the Holy Spirit operates in our lives, He generates His fruit that includes love, joy, patience, and more. He gives us that vital element of true, enduring peace. As the Spirit enables us to live in God's shalom, we learn to bring our needs and concerns to our Heavenly Father. This in turn brings us the peace of God which transcends all understanding, the peace that will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. In Christ's Spirit, our hearts experience true shalom.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 25. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 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. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let's pray together. God of Shalom, thank you that your desire is for peace to reign in our lives. Thank you for the work of Jesus that makes peace available and the work of the Spirit whose fruit in our lives brings peace to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.