Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Personal Peace (06/01/06)
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TITLE: First Person Tranquility | Previous Challenge Entry
By Katherine Hussmann Klemp
06/06/06 -
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Justice and righteousness seem linked here. Justice in the desert; righteousness in the fertile field. That pretty much covers much of the earth’s terrain, especially in Old Testament times when this was written. The result? Peace. And the effect of peace? Quietness and confidence forever.
The only thing that brings awareness of real justice is the knowledge that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. And the righteous shall live by his faith.
Hence, the only way to inner peace is through faith in Jesus Christ. This seems self-evident to the Christian. What intrigued me in these verses was the effect of peace. That effect, says Isaiah, will be quietness and confidence.
The quietness part seems obvious, but confidence? The more we dwell on these words the more profound the concept. When we put our problems in the hands of an Almighty God, and turn the results over to Him, what could possibly shake our confidence in the outcome? Would we be anxious? Worried? Uncertain? Not at all. We would be at peace.
Almost fourteen years ago my husband needed a kidney transplant. Miraculously, I was a two tissue match and was accepted as a donor for his transplant. (The doctors told my husband that the odds were so long for a non-related donor to be that compatible it was like winning the lottery.)
On the eve of “our” surgery I turned to my husband and asked him, “Are you worried about tomorrow?”
“No,” he answered truthfully. “Are you?”
“No,” I answered, surprising even myself. “Are we missing something here?”
It almost felt as though we were not taking the gravity of the coming event very seriously. But it was more than that. The prayers of friends and relatives, and the faith we had in God’s grace gave us the confidence to be at peace with whatever God had chosen for us.
Since that day we have fretted often over far less important maters. We do not always live in perfect peace, but I do know what personal peace feels like, because, on the eve of a momentous day in my life I had a peace that passes understanding. And you can have it, too. It is for real. It is a quiet confidence in God’s love for you. And it comes by faith.
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Joyce