“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4; NKJV). It’s not hard to see King David’s focus and priority in life. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, how much of a priority is God in our lives?
When asked, Jesus told us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30; NKJV). That’s pretty straight forward! One psalmist told us to look to God (Ps 123:2b) and another taught us that if we delighted in the things of God we would flourish and prosper (Ps 1:1-6). King David in Psalm 37:4 exhorted us to delight in God and if we did, He would supply the very things our hearts desire (Ps 37:4). In Psalm 119:2 the psalmist showed us that we would be blessed if we obeyed God’s word and sought after Him with all our heart.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote: “draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8; NKJV). Finally, the apostle Paul pressed into God to be all God wanted him to be (Phil 3:12-14). We are surely exhorted to love and focus on God, press in and be all He wants us to be, the blessings are overwhelming! Nuff said!
“Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you His peace (the peace of His kingdom) at all times and in all ways (under all circumstances and conditions, whatever comes) (2 Thess 3:6; AMPC).
Most of us would love to have God’s peace at all times and in all circumstances, but how can that be? To begin
with, one of the names of God is Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:24) which means the Lord is peace. Shalom is an Old Testament word referring to soundness, completeness, welfare, health, prosperity, harmony and the absence of strife. The Greek word for peace in our verse above is Eirene which translates very similarly to shalom. In Isa 9:6, Jesus is referred to as the Prince of peace and if we are born again Christians then we have the Prince of Peace living on the inside of us and making His peace available to us at all times. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit and so it develops and matures as we grow in our Christian walk, and in addition we find God’s peace in His presence.
However, although we have God’s peace inside of us, we may not always b e experiencing it because we are not perfectly matured yet, so what do we do? In 1 Peter 3:11 (AMPC) we are told that we need to “search for peace” and “seek it eagerly”. How do we do this? The Bible has much to say about peace, so we need to find those scriptures, write them out, study and meditate on them. Then when the devil tries to steal our peace, we can speak them right in his face and enjoy the fruit of peace!
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27; NKJV).
On Many occasions Jesus said, “your faith has made you well” when He healed people. For example, He said this to a leper that He healed (Luke 17:19) and a blind man (Luke 18:42). Jesus complemented people for their faith, such as a centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matt 8:10), and a woman begging Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter (Matt 15:28).
In the Acts of the Apostles Peter brought God’s healing to a lame man, stating that he was healed by faith in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:16). Looking down through the annals of time Jesus said, “when the Son of man comes will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8; NKJV). If Jesus returned to earth today, would He find us living by faith in Him?
In Galatians 3:11 we read that, “the just shall live by faith” (NKJV); that’s us! God has given us all faith (Rom 12:3b) but we need to grow it and of course He has given us the means to do that. Firstly, we can grow our faith by immersing ourselves in His word (Rom 10:17) and also by praying as directed by the Holy Spirit, in our own words and in tongues (Jude v 20). I think the following is my favourite definition of faith “through the leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness” (2 Tim 3:15; AMP). Amen.
“The ONE THING I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most---is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in His temple” (Ps 27:4; NLT). This was obviously a cry from deep within
David’s heart. In the New Testament, Luke 10:42 we read, “There is only ONE THING worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42; NLT). What was the one thing that Mary was doing? She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His teaching; she was in His presence. This is exactly what David was desiring. Moses said that if God’s presence did not go with them on their journey through the wilderness, then he didn’t want to move (Ex 33:15). Psalm 16:11 tells us that fullness of joy is found in God’s presence. God’s presence also strengthens our spirits and brings us rest (Ex 33:14).
When we read the word, pray, worship and spend time with God, we are in His presence. Let’s ask God to help us make “one thing” our priority, and ask Him to give us a hunger like never before for this “one thing”. Then we can be like Paul who said, “ONE THING I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:13,14; NKJV).
Does anybody ever worry or have anxiety? Worry and anxiety are completely unproductive and will only wear us out. In Psalm 23 we read: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul (Psalm 23:1-3a; NKJV). That speaks of peace and tranquility. It is the devil that comes: “to steal, kill and to destroy (John 10:10; NKJV). He wants to steal our peace and destroy that tranquility. Jesus defeated satan and took back all power and authority from him (Col 2:15; 1 Cor 15:57) and we as Christians walk in Christ’s victory and authority over satan. James, the brother of Jesus said we could “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7a). We resist the devil by reminding him of God’s promises for us and refusing to receive his thoughts and imaginations.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus told us not to worry but to focus on Him and He would take care of all of our needs. The apostle Peter exhorted us to cast every care over on God because He cares for each one of us (1 Peter 5:7). That does not mean cast our cares on Him in the morning but then pick them up and worry later in the day! It means give all your worries and anxiety to God all of the time! “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You. Because he trusts in You (Isa 26:3; NKJV). Do we get the picture?