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Peace, Mercy, and Love

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14: 23 (ESV)
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-17

God talked to me three times today. I wrote to process what He was telling me. This devotion talks about what He told me about His peace, mercy, and love.

Flowers with titel Peace, Mercy, and Love

If you have read the About Me page, you know that I started writing these devotions because God was talking to me one night. God kept talking, and I kept writing.

God is still talking to me (thankfully! I still need a lot of work.) He talked to me a couple of times today through various things. I am going to write this to try to process what He wanted me to get out of all He put before me.

I like to make connections. I think the three times He was talking to me today was really all variations on the same theme.

So, walk along with me as I try to figure out what He wanted me to know (and share with you).

City with John 14: 23

Today's Devotion

My Secret Pal at church gave me a devotional book for Christmas. It is Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It is written as if Jesus were saying the words directly to us.

I’ve been underlining what has spoken to me. Then I try to put in my own words what the sentence(s) say to me.

Today’s devotion talks about God’s peace reigning within us in the deepest core of our being. Here is what I wrote.

First Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (NASB). His dwelling place is in the deepest part of us. Yes, we can’t see it, but that is where the peace is buried.

Does it stay buried, or do we work to have it flow out of us? Yes, it is work. We have to work to focus on it. We have to decide to be joyful and tap into that peace.

Does peace stay buried within us or does it flow out of us?

Praise Team

I am on Praise Team Sunday morning so I went to practice tonight. One of the songs we are singing is At The Cross (Love Ran Red), written by Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jonas Myrin, Matt Armstrong, and Matt Redman. At prayer time, we focused on some of the words. If I were to write how it spoke to me, here is what I would write.

God provides a place where peace, mercy and love flow in abundance. It is where he bestows forgiveness.

River

On My Way Home

I was listening to the Christian radio station on the way home. They played For King and Country’s new song, God Only Knows.

The first line caught my attention. It talks about being awake while everyone else is sleeping. Considering I have an Insomnia Buddy, I felt the song was talking to me.

The song talks about our feelings of loneliness. It talks about trying to move on when everything seems like it is in pieces and haunted by memories.

Even if no one sees us for who we are, God does. He knows the experiences we’ve had that makes us the person we are.

God knows us like no one else knows us. The song says He knows the real us. He even knows the real us that we try to hide from others.

God loves us enough to help us start over. He knows us, loves us, and will never leave us.

Making the Connections

God’s peace, mercy and love is at our center. That is our foundation. Those three prongs make a strong foundation.

We need to focus inward to tap into God’s foundation of peace, mercy, and love. I know that is hard to do, especially for women. We are so programmed to put others first. This is especially true of husbands and children.

We need to make sure that we don’t let the constant struggles of today’s world, attacks on the family, and personal attacks make us to take our focus off our center. We have to seek God. We do, as a person. Not as a wife/husband. Not as a parent. Not as an employee, student, or any other descriptor we want to tack on us. We need to seek God as a child of the One true God.

This is not being selfish. This is self-preservation. And it is work. If we don’t work to strengthen the foundation by growing our relationship with our Lord, the foundation will start to crumble.

Okay, I have been struggling with the loneliness for a while. I told someone a while back that, if God put a new significant other in my path and he asked me what experiences had made me the woman I am today, he would probably think I was 120 because of all the things that have formed who I am now. It makes meeting someone new scary.

But God knows. God walked with me through all of those experiences.

God doesn’t need our thoughts in cartoon bubbles over our heads. He knows all about us — and still loves us immensely. He knows our struggles, our insecurities, and our greatest fears.

God intimately knows us — and provides peace, mercy, and love abundantly. He knows the real us and loves us unconditionally.

All we have to do is look inside of us and tap into that peace, mercy, and love. We must choose to seek God.

So, bottom line, what do I think God was telling me through all of this? I may feel that everything is very chaotic now with starting this blog and the upcoming move. I don’t have to worry. He’s got me. He loves me and wants to give me His peace, mercy, and love. I just have to look inward to my core to find them. That will take my focus off the chaos and put it on Him — where it belongs.

Father. We struggle so much as we live out our lives in today’s world. Unfortunately, at times we take our focus off You and put it on the people and circumstances before us. Help us to look inward to where You are dwelling within us. You are close to us, Lord, and want us to keep our focus on You. Flood us with your peace, mercy, and love. Amen.

What do you think? Do you see the connections that I made? Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

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