Peace Because of Victory

When you are in a competition and you win, how do you feel afterwards? Especially if a competition was particular challenging or difficult, you may feel very good about what you have accomplished. You congratulate yourself, and let others congratulate you.

You are in some sense at peace with the results. You are no longer worried about your opponent or the outcome.

Your victory has been achieved, and you can now be at rest in the results. But how did you feel in the midst of your test or trouble? Were you really at peace, were you really confident in victory? More often than not, the answer is going to be no.

Something to note is that God prepares us in advance for what is going to happen. It never came to God as a surprise that one day Israel would ask for a king, or that His people would rebel against Him. In fact, He told Israel exactly what was going to happen in its history long before it ever came to pass. Christ did the same with the disciples. God know us, and He knows our hearts. He knows that in the midst of suffering, we are not going to be calm and cool and collected.

Nevertheless, He tells us to be at peace, because although we have trouble, we also have Him who is victorious. But Christ is not calling us into any random peace, but peace in Him and His word. J.C. Philpot tells us, "Now the Lord designs that all His dear family should have peace in Him...no peace in self...no peace [in the world]... no peace in anything else, [that] they may come as poor broken hearted sinners... and find peace in believing."

Living Life