Ephesians 2:13-15

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the Blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to created in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace..."

We were far, but now we are near, being near brings us peace. When we allow the world to draw us away from Christ (for my usually by being BUSY) then we find a lack of peace. Christ is our peace and without him we struggle with hostility and frustrations. Another thing that strikes me is that we can follow all the laws and commandments and still NOT have peace because peace comes through CHRIST! When it says abolishing the commandments and regulations, it doesn't mean that we should just let chaos rule our lives. It means that when we live close enough to Christ that his peace is flowing in us constantly, the other things won't be necessary because we will already be following them! When my children were little I had to tell them how to dress, clear down to the details, hopefully now that they are older, I don't have to tell them each thing, they just do it naturally. I think that is what this is saying about rules and such. When we were far away, we needed them to know what was the right thing to do, but now that we have God's peace, we don't need to be TOLD the right thing, we just do it.

Boy oh boy did I need this today! I had a morning amish run that started badly and got worse! I was to be in Grabill by 6:45 so I got there at 6:30. They wanted to be back here by 8:00....so I should have been home by 8:15 or so. Instead it was one thing after another and I got home at 9:30. Frustrated and definitely NOT feeling peace! Then I started this scripture and realized that I was not feeling peace because I was preventing myself from feeling it! I didn't have anything else scheduled for this morning. I was not late, hurt, hurting someone else, or in any other way truly bothered by running late. I was CHOOSING to be irritated. I can also CHOOSE to allow myself to be thankful for the extra time I had to pray in the van this morning. Choose to be thankful for the money that brings in my family. Thankful that I CAN do something to bring in money without taking me away from my family for significant times during the day. I can CHOOSE to have peace! And I think I will! So I am pasting a smile on my face and looking forward to a peace-filled day with God!

Father, I know my attitude is what gets in the way of your work in my life. I know you have tried a million times to teach me that and I know you will have to teach me that a million more! But for today, thank you for that lesson! Thank you for your peace! Man, I'd hate to see what this world were like if we didn't have a small part of your peace each day!

Amen!