PEACE AMID STRIFE

 

The world is getting worse and worse. It is becoming the challenge of the day to foster contentment and peace. As we contemplate that it might get much worse, hope seems to be on the slippery slope. Now more than ever we need to believe that peace of heart is still possible. Consider the blessed state of those who did something to make this a reality: “….they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation…..because of their yielding their hearts unto God.” (Helaman 3:35). This state of joy and consolation came to the Nephites who were members of Christ’s Church amid much ‘persecution and affliction’ (v34). In other words, their state of contentment was not situational or circumstantial. It came from their spiritual well-being. This is not all, however….there is something greater. In the second part of this verse it says: “filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea,  even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts” (v35). To be sanctified means to be freed from sin and to be made holy. There is only one path to sanctification and that is obedience and obedience becomes ever so much easier when you are yielding your heart to God. When you do so, you are sanctified and you enter into a state of spiritual joy and consolation. Consolation means comfort and solace. And is this not needed in the world today? 

 

We are in the twelfth hour. The Saviour is at the door. However, that does not necessarily mean that He will come tomorrow, this year or the next. There is still so much more to come before He appears, so much good to fulfill the promises, but also so much more strife as evil grips the ‘powerful’ men of this world who yield control. We might have to endure much more than we want to but the tool to survive it all is ours and then the peace…..for a thousand years…..such as has never been known on earth before…may we await with eagerness, hope and iron-clad conviction, the one and only, Prince of Peace. 

 

 

I long to reside in Your presence;

To never know sadness

Or the wretched heat of my tears.

I know I will be safe there

Where fears cannot find me

And trials cannot scar me.

I know there will be safety

In the shadow of Your wings;

My burdens You will carry

And wipe away my sins.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Time Is At Hand by Danny Hahlbohm)