Today’s Reading:
Isaiah 26
John 14
Matthew 11
Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with you; they confidently trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 TPT
I heard the Spirit of the Living God say,
Don’t lose your peace, and don’t give it away. My peace I have given to you. It’s a gift for you. Don’t neglect it. Keep it in active use. What you have, you can give, you can impart, you can release and you can share. But don’t give it up. Stay in perfect peace, come what may. The enemy will try to use circumstances to shake you, so you lose your peace; or to startle you, so you drop your peace; or to bring fear, so you forget that you are holding and carrying the peace that I have given to you. Don’t give in to his wicked tactics. Remain in peace. Live with an awareness and a continual cultivation and outward dispensing of your peace. It’s a gift that you have freely received, so you should freely share it.
“I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!”
John 14:27 TPT
Be mindful that more things can lead to less peace — whether possessions, responsibilities, tasks, even finances. Live within the means that your level of peace allows. Test the peace before you add something new. This is a great test for whether to say yes or no. It’s a great test because it’s not just your peace. It’s My peace that I have given you, so My peace will rest upon what is My good and perfect will for you. It’s My peace that you possess. How powerful is that? Living lightly allows you to be agile. It allows you to move with the impulses of My Spirit and nimbly follow My peace. That’s the kind of life I desire for you — a life that possesses peace, carries peace, releases and disperses peace and follows joyfully after My great peace. This is the way of those moved by the Spirit.
“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”
Matthew 11:28-30 TPT
It’s not to say that you can’t have much or shouldn’t have much. Because My burden is easy and My yoke is light, it doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside — to you or to others. What matters is, is the burden light? Is My peace on it? The totality of all I have given you stewardship over may look gigantic and massive on the outside to you or to others, but if it’s from Me and dripping with My peace, the burden will be light.
This isn’t a message about having little or doing little. It’s a message of only carrying what I give you to carry and not chasing after every good thing that comes along. Keeping and stewarding My peace is a discipline, and it will be one of the best practices you can instill in your life. It brings a totally different meaning to that old phrase, hold your peace. But that is what I Am calling and teaching you to do — to manage your life and choices in a way that allows you to hold your peace well.
How to Respond
- Pray, Jesus, thank You for leaving Your peace with me and for being the Prince of Peace. Holy Spirit, help me to see the places in my life that are hot spots lacking peace. Give me the wisdom to properly address those, even if it means giving something up, walking away from a commitment I should not have made or one that has run its course. Help me do to this all honorably — even if it’s messy. I want to live as a carrier and dispenser of Your perfect peace and one whose every step is following Your peace.
- Declare, Yahweh is my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name. Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; you give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!“
Psalms 23:1-6 TPT - Decree, I choose to live as a steward and dispenser of the Lord’s perfect peace. I will no longer pick up tasks, responsibilities or possessions that the Lord’s peace is not resting upon. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. I want to live disciplined to only carry those things that are connected to His peace. I will let go of and walk away from the things I’ve taken on in my own strength and those things upon which the Lord’s peace once rested on but has since departed. I will not be a slave to tradition, routine, my preferences, my consideration of appearances, the expectations of others or the fear of man. I will move and change with the impulses of Holy Spirit, and I will live light in His perfect peace.
For more encouragement from The Glory & New Wine, check out the post from this day in years past:
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