Today Is for Inward Peace

When the guardian of my soul is the Great Shepherd, what do you think happens? Peace within.

Now, I confess to having fears within, like we all have, from time to time. I confess to not fully receiving God’s peace—that is, the perfect love that drives out fear. I imagine you have the same issue as me, unless you are far more advanced in your own spiritual walk. I’m working on receiving that love with Him. He loves me so, and I will know it in full one day. Of this, I am sure. I will accept it in full one day. Of this, I am sure.

But between then and now, when I look in a mirror dimly, I trust He is circling around me with a wealth of love, and I trust that He welcomes my mustard-seed faith. Now, seeing as I am growing in grace and I am seeking to understand how to walk forward in greater faith with peace, here’s where I am: He holds me, and He leads me.

As the biblical imagery puts it, I am at war with my sin, while at peace with Him. One day triumphant, now militant—as the turn of phrase in the Christian tradition goes. I go to Jesus for my supply until that final rest.

Listen, if I am to write like this, then you must know that it is a ministry of weakness. Hear that loud and clear. I am sharing my spiritual journey with you, my faith walk. And in this forum, I don’t put these posts forth in a teaching forum, but as a fellow soul loving Jesus and yearning for Him. If you join me here—welcome!—know that I bring the waste, the rubble, and He the joy. I am precious and dearly love because He has set His love upon me. That’s all I mean.

Jesus is the expert on the turns of the soul, and I write in this forum as a fellow follower of Christ, humbling myself and wanting His glory truly. Do you accept these terms, as a reader? Good, for I am growing in inner peace. Here is an entry in that file.

Today Is for Hope, Grace, and Faith

When you wake up in the morning, do you feel a smile reach your face, or a frown? Do you know what I have? I have the reality of Jesus Christ across my face. He is and has always been my “reason.” My morning air, my daily breath, my hope, etc.

Yet, faith in Jesus in my everyday circumstances can prove a challenge for me. I recently felt the Lord convict me that I want Him in heaven, but not on earth. Meaning, I want Him when everything is perfect but I don’t always want to follow Him in my day-to-day circumstances. The precipitated reflection for me, that culminated in a new reception of God’s grace. I needed His forgiveness.

I don’t exactly know if I’m an old Christian who has received new grace, or if I am a new Christian who has miraculously received grace. I believe God is merciful and honors our faith. But I confess a limited understanding of God’s grace for me, prior to this spiritual experience.

I understood the doctrine of grace. I had deep love for Jesus (more than I can say). But I was lacking in grace, and now I make it my intention to regularly—prayerfully, daily!—remember God’s grace for me and that He holds me.

This new understanding of grace has been so monumental that I wonder if God accepted my faith before it. But I did confess with my mouth that Jesus is the Son of God and believe God raised Him from the dead for the forgiveness of my sins. Yes, I did. I believed in His forgiveness with a simple faith. But did I grasp His grace for me like I do now? No. Do I grasp it yet? Not fully. Amen.

Today Is for Jesus

I have faith that Jesus truly is the Son of God, truly sits at the Father’s right hand, was truly the babe in the manger, and was truly the sacrifice for my sins. He bled and died—for me and for you. I love a song I sung for Jesus in high school:

Jesus, your name is like honey on my lips

Your Spirit like water to my soul

Your Word is a lamp unto my feet

Jesus, I love you. I love you.

Salvation really is—truly is—the greatest possible gift. Eternal separation from God as compared with eternal glory with Him. Who can designate a better gift to the fallen human race? Who could imagine this: the God of the universe becoming flesh for us?

There is a difference between Jesus in our minds and the Jesus who is. There is a difference between the Jesus we picture and the Jesus who lives. I do well to remember it, and to simply ask if I might get to know Him a bit better.

Jesus welcomes all of the hard things that are in my heart—unto His presence, to look at there with Him. He doesn’t turn the contrite away. Listen, I have not always done that with Jesus. I haven’t handled my sins with Him on an ongoing basis. It’s much easier to self-correct and turn to self-righteousness. But that is hateful to the Lord who made way for my acts to be brought to Him. It must be in the fellowship with the God. The God whose name is like honey and who lights my path.

Today Is for Thriving in His Hands

There is nothing quite so peaceful as knowing that you free unto Jesus.

There is nothing that so “charms” the soul.

I love Jesus, and I will spend all eternity with Him, saying, “It’s all about You!”

I will bow. I will sing. I will obey perfectly. And that is the delight of my heart.

The best praise I can give Jesus today is to have faith—to trust that His grace really does make room for me at His holy, gorgeous future banquet table. The best thing I can do is trust in His mercy for all that I haven’t “processed” with Him yet, and believe that there is strength with Jesus to allow me to move forward. He holds my life, my mind, my heart, my everything.

Jesus is my all in all times, and I know that He truly can guide me through this life. I trust in the life He wants to give me, and I trust that I am truly His.

Jesus says that my spirit is able to walk with Him. He says that my spirit is able to thrive here in Him. And as I trust in His loving kindness over me, I believe I can trust Him today. I can trust that He leads me, and I choose to trust and follow. Out of my hands, and into His!

Today Is for Being Kept

Jesus wants us all to have willing spirits to obey Him. He knows that days can get long, every dreary. He knows that circumstances can send us straight to trusting our own strength. He knows that our wisdom is not His wisdom—and we often revert to the former. But what of the spirit of a man? We are in the hands and safeguarding of Jesus.

Jesus is the all in all of our lives and of our days. He is the one we trust in at all times when we depend on the gifts and increases of faith that He gives. We must—I think!—remember that Jesus is a Person. We pray to the Word made flesh, and we can trust His Word to lead us to the Person of Jesus. If we really know that—and we do even if our belief is faulty—then we know that there is more in us than we realize. There is more in us than we know. And there is more in us than we sense. For Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit (John 14:17).

It’s a sweet prayer to say that our spirits are willing when our flesh is weak. A very sweet prayer indeed, but what’s most important is to first recall that Jesus keep us, that Jesus preserves us. He’s able to do so, and He’s willing to do so. No matter what, Jesus longs for us to be dependent upon Him, every step of our lives. Where are you, my God? My soul cries it. And He answers: He makes me willing to hold fast to Him in faith when the flesh is weak.

Today Is for the Spirit

Jesus. What a beautiful name it is. How could I tell you all He has done for my soul? He truly does give the faith to move internal mountains, and what I am learning from Him today is to welcome Him. I can let go of all that I’ve been burying—all of the secret feelings few see, all of the wandering thoughts I don’t want to show Him. He sees everything, the pain and the sin—and the two commingled.

This is what my heart knows: that Jesus is always near by grace, and we can trust it. His grace is so great and marvelous indeed. He is kind in this way: He stands at the doors of our hearts and knocks; will we let Him in? Will we allow Him entry? He wants in.

And I say: This is my hope—that Jesus wants “in” on this spirit of mine by grace. He knows me and wants me. He does use the weak of the earth to shame the strong—that is, He uses the weakness in me to shame the self-focused strength I think I have. God’s power puts my power to shame. And the Lord of all gives me His power, and His strength, in weakness. So, my power is “shamed” because His power is so strong. It is strong enough to cause me not to fear to show Him all of me. Mercy triumphs over judgment—never forget it.

Will you trust with me that Jesus is this wonderful as to shame our “power” by giving us His? How strong His grace; how strong His mercy.

Today Is for Hope

When my daughter was stillborn, I pleaded with God to accept her home and let me follow. I asked that Jesus would please take me home. What I didn’t know is that He wanted me to stay on earth to learn to know and love Him more.

“She is okay”—that’s what I told myself, as I imagined my daughter in paradise. I deeply wanted to join her. In that desire, I think I issued a bit of rebellion against this life—deciding somewhere within my heart that not fully living would be a tribute of sorts to my girl. I also believe that I grew away from the Lord relationally even though I hung onto my theological understandings. He didn’t grant my request to go home.

I connected with people over the internet about my loss, in an online community, but not as much in person. I didn’t receive the full grace God blessed me with in my church community, and I waited on God to take me home—one day at least, even if not in the days immediately following my daughter’s stillbirth.

I decided somewhere deep within that it would be “okay” with God that I put up this inner protest because I felt I had gone through something so difficult. But I now realize that God doesn’t accept the protest (or the rebellion). He declines.

Instead, He provides; He lifts. And, He causes me to move forward. He does. This is what Jesus does for me, and I love Him for it because it will product an eternal glory that far outweighs this all. I am a Jesus-woman, and He is my hope.

Today Is for Freedom and Peace

God the Father watching over His children: He is keeping us in His tender care. He is watching and waiting for us to draw near. He is blessing our efforts done in faith, and He is strengthening the cores of our inner beings. He truly sustains the brokenhearted and bolsters those who are crushed in spirit. He truly answers the prayers we have—from the precious saints He knows and keeps. He truly walks with us on the road and path of “recovery.” That’s what I consider it: every moment of trusting in God’s grace is a moment of recovery from trusting in self to trusting in God. I imagine His sweet voice in my ear encouraging and molding me—this way, not that way. This feeling not that feeling. This path not that path. I’ve received grace to know that God forgives and accepts me—at great cost to Himself, and no cost to me. (But now to consider all else loss.) Do you know Jesus like this? Like the tender sense in your very soul telling you: you’re mine, period. I am learning to rest here, to trust here, to lean here. I am learning. God’s work is like a sweet grace, a sweet salvation, that could be from no one else. It’s good, indeed, to trust in Jesus.