Can this be a characteristic of a modern Christian? Yes, it can. Even the most devout, sincere believer has doubts and ask, "What is wrong with me? I know it can't be the Lord. It must be my fault."
Yes. And many of these Christians are depending upon prayer, the Bible, meetings, their experience, Christian books--almost everything but Christ Himself! They have not allowed the great simplicity of who He is dawn on their conscious minds. Right to the point Paul goes on this subject: "He is our peace." And he has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. "Lo, I am with you always." Peace is not something we can wrap in a package or store away ona shelf. It is not a "something" at all. It is a Person. Peace is Jesus Christ Himself. He has given us a conscious mind with which to take hold of this. We control that conscious mind. Whether you feel peaceful or not as you read these lines, if you belong to Jesus Christ, you have peace because you have Him.
One of the greatest tricks of the strange depths of our human personalities is to cause us to think that just because we don't feel a certain way, we are not that way. Just by making use of my God-given cosscious mind, I have decided to cultivate the habit of remembering that He will never leave me. I may leave Him, but He will never leave me. And "He is our peace." Therefore I can know and have peace, Himself, in the midst of great weeping. In the midst of nerve-shattering confusion. In the midst of misunderstanding and anger. And as I use my conscious mind to remeber this, I find, when I least expect it, that some sense of this peace returns to my emotions too.
Yes. And many of these Christians are depending upon prayer, the Bible, meetings, their experience, Christian books--almost everything but Christ Himself! They have not allowed the great simplicity of who He is dawn on their conscious minds. Right to the point Paul goes on this subject: "He is our peace." And he has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. "Lo, I am with you always." Peace is not something we can wrap in a package or store away ona shelf. It is not a "something" at all. It is a Person. Peace is Jesus Christ Himself. He has given us a conscious mind with which to take hold of this. We control that conscious mind. Whether you feel peaceful or not as you read these lines, if you belong to Jesus Christ, you have peace because you have Him.
One of the greatest tricks of the strange depths of our human personalities is to cause us to think that just because we don't feel a certain way, we are not that way. Just by making use of my God-given cosscious mind, I have decided to cultivate the habit of remembering that He will never leave me. I may leave Him, but He will never leave me. And "He is our peace." Therefore I can know and have peace, Himself, in the midst of great weeping. In the midst of nerve-shattering confusion. In the midst of misunderstanding and anger. And as I use my conscious mind to remeber this, I find, when I least expect it, that some sense of this peace returns to my emotions too.
[My thots: I have been one of those who has cried--"What is wrong with me?" Believing I was the only one who thought like this. Since my thoughts were so wrapped in my emotions I could not understand that the solution was there with the simplicity of Christ in me. Since I have Christ, I have the peace of God which passeth all understand. I have experienced it to be true, even in the midst of my greatest heartache and trial. When I reminded my conscious mind this a sense of peace returned to help calm my troubled heart. My heartache didn't magically go away but I had this peace that carried me through it.]
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