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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Gift of Peace

# 598 - Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 10:32-34 “Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; "and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."

Amazed and afraid. The idea of being amazed is they were dumbfounded....found to be dumb, in other words they were speechless. They couldn't believe that their Master was bent on going to Jerusalem! Grave danger lay ahead for Him!

They were also afraid. The word in the Greek is phobea, from which we get the word phobia. This was not an ordinary fear, it was paralyzing. It explains why they missed what Jesus said next. They missed the part about Him rising from the dead!

All they could focus on was their fears. None of us hear very well when we are panicked. Too bad, because if we would but listen to Him here, perhaps we could better handle are own times of fear.

The worst possible scenario was going to happen to Jesus, yet in the end, He wins. He rises from the dead, and so will we. Let that fact bring peace to your troubled soul.

Think of all the times in Scripture, where the Lord says, “Fear not.” I don't think it is a suggestion. I believe it has the full authority of a command, and when He commands the spirit of fear to depart from our flesh, it has no choice but to leave.

I have come to believe through my own personal experience, that peace (a lack of fear) is a gift from God, and that it can depart at any time, therefore I thank God every day for peace, and I pray that He will continually command the spirit of fear to depart when my heart is troubled.
Father, guard our hearts from fear and grant us Your peace.

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