Saturday, January 18, 2014

Isaiah 57:18-21 -- On Finding Peace

"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
Isaiah 57:18-21


This chapter is talking about people who are sorry for their sins... they are humble and contrite.  And although they suffered some for the things that they were doing, in the end, they will be at peace.  But the same can't be said for the wicked.

Although this chapter begins by talking about when the righteous die, I don't think this is only true after this life.  I feel like it is true now.  If we're searching for peace in our lives, the biggest thing that we can do to get there is repent and make our lives closer to God.  When we sin, no matter how we think we're taking it, some part of our spirit is really upset... maybe subconsciously, since we are temporarily separated from those memories, but our spirits and our consciences bother us, and our own actions are the reason that we can't achieve inner peace.

The more we try to justify or try to stifle that inner turmoil, the worse it gets.  We can do escapist things or block it out temporarily, but when we do that we are just getting farther and farther from who we really are, and making it harder to come back to the peace that we need.  In order for God to be able to heal us and bring peace back to our souls, we have to be sorry for what we've done.  We have to recognize the mess that we've made of our internal landscape, and we have to want to change.

Today, let's try to let go of our pride and our justification of our bad choices.  Let's humbly seek peace, and be willing to live better lives.  Let's listen to God, and let him help us.  It's really hard sometimes... we often really, really want things that are bad for us, and we really, really want to be right, and to force contentment onto the pattern that we have set.  But it starts to fray, every time.  We need to return to God before we can find that inner calm.  Today, let's let go of whatever is holding us back, and accept God's love and guidance.

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