Read Obadiah

We have built into our hearts an unhealthy and disillusioned view of what we have or what we don’t have. There is a perpetual belief in the human heart that what we have is either not good enough or what we have is better than it is.

Originating in our childhood and developing into our adulthood there tends to be this condition of the human heart that makes it nearly impossible for us to simply accept where we are for exactly what we are and to find contentment in that state of being. When most of us have little, it is far too easy for us to dream of having more than we do while entirely overlooking the blessings that surround us at that moment in time. When most of us have been blessed with the privilege of plenty, it is far too easy for us to distort or corrupt this abundance into an impression of inflated strength.

It is this unwillingness to be content or this unwillingness to be realistic that causes most of the stress in our daily lives. Our dissatisfaction in little robs us of the joy that God has truly blessed us with. Whereas, the pride in much separates us from the blessings that God desires for us to receive. Thus, it is no surprise that the one overwhelming promise that Jesus repeatedly makes to his disciples is “peace.” It is fitting for a God that knows our hearts better than we do to promise the thing that we most deeply need. Receiving the peace of God is not a life free of struggle or strife. The challenges of this world will never cease as long as we live. Receiving the peace of God goes much deeper than that. The peace of God is knowing that with Him and in Him we are precisely where we need to be and have exactly what we need. From this place, the contentment is in God and for God. This peace does not crave more and it does not imagine more. It is what it is because He is who He is. He is the great “I am” which means that He is ever in the present and choosing to live in the present without the burdens of past or future allows us to finally be at peace where “we are.”