When I was writing my thoughts about this passage, I was getting over being sick, my kids had spent a week a piece being sick, and I was catching up enough to be behind. Maybe that is why Paul wrote this. Faith leads to justification which leads to peace. Even though I go through a bump in the road from time to time, I am never separated from the peace of God.
After all the turmoil suffered in the world because of sin, God's peace is refreshing. When I have been separated from God, I miss Him. Imagine (or remember) what it feels like to come home to the greatest celebration on earth. God does His best (which can't be topped by anything) in bringing you to a relationship with Him. At this moment, He pours His peace into your soul. It is an everlasting peace. It is a peace that surpasses all understanding, and yet it is a peace that doesn't stop the craziness in the world or the time constraints or the messes at work or the pain or the hatred or the sin. What it does is much more.
God's peace is an enabler. It enables you to stand on principle. It reminds you that you are not alone as you work to get a project done. It remains with you as you face suffering. It replaces the fear that once trapped you. It empowers you to overcome the sin that once destroyed you. God's peace is from everlasting to everlasting! God's peace never runs out. Even when reality hits and more suffering or pain or time lines come, God's peace is still our hope.
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)Romans 5:2 tells us to rejoice in the hope we have in the glory of God. Because we have experienced peace, we can have all the more faith in God's precious grace. This hope allows us to rejoice in suffering because it builds perseverance, which means we have been given everything we need to endure. The perseverance builds character, which reveals our faith. Character increases our faith, and the cycle starts all over again growing us more and more each time.
The fun part of growing is that increased hope builds me up and never leaves me empty. Why? God has given me the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit pours out God's love into my heart and comforts me daily.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)While mankind was powerless to sin's influence, God sent His Son to die for us. His death demonstrated God's love for us and overpowered sin's hold on us. Sin separates us from God. He turned the table. He loved us so much that He took the first step towards us by initiating a plan to bring us back to Him. This plan shows us His love and how our own actions are not enough to maintain peace with Him. That's why He shares His peace.
When sin influences our life, we cannot access God's peace. The only way back to peace is through His Son. Through Him, we can be reconciled. Peace is worth the relationship.
Don't let life fool you. You have to take a risk in any relationship. You have to risk getting a broken heart. The only difference is that God repairs broken hearts; He never breaks them. The risk is worth it - peace can be yours. Hope will never disappoint you.
- Have you ever lost hope? How have you tried to get hope back?
- Have you ever had a relationship filled with broken promises? How did you cope?
- Have you ever been brokenhearted?
- Is the peace offered by God enough for you to risk a healing relationship with Him?
- If you are a Christian, what has God taken you through lately that has been a growing experience? How did you change or grow?
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