Jesus Calling: January 24 (2024)

My Peace is the treasure of treasures: the pearl of great price. It is an exquisitely costly gift, both for the Giver and the receiver. I purchased this Peace for you with My blood. You receive this gift by trusting Me in the midst of life's storms. If you have the world's peace--everything going your way--you don't seek My unfathomable Peace. Thank Me when things do not go your way, because spiritual blessings come wrapped in trials. Adverse circ*mstances are normal in a fallen world. Expect them each day. Rejoice in the face of hardship, for I have overcome the world.

Matthew 13:46
New King James Version
...who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

James 1:2
English Standard Version
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds...

John 16:33
English Standard Version
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

Your word says in Romans that there is peace in Christ. This peace was not cheap. It came at a great price; the death of Jesus on the cross for each of us. Lord, too often the peace I seek in life is not your peace. I seek peace from my own decision making. Help me to know what it means to have my peace be in You. Lord, deepen me in Your Word each day so that your Words are in my life.

Help me Lord to be thankful for even the tough times or the hard times. Lord, it happens every day to me. There are expectations I have often of other people and how they are to act toward me and so there are unmet expectations. Those are trials for me. There are challenges with my job and getting work done or not getting work done because there is so much work to do. Those are trials. There are employees that do not do a level of work needed. Those are trials. Lord, I find that many of those trials right now are unmet expectations. Teach me Lord if what I want is out of line and perhaps not really waiting on You for patience. Like my children not being assertive in their future goals but instead it often seems they are content to just watch another television show or be entertained one more time. My son wants to quit soccer when soccer is a trial to him. He isn't getting the feedback that he used to get. I suppose I have these expectations and they are not getting met, but I suppose I am also concerned that they are making unwise decisions.

Lord, I do think of my mom and the trial she is going through of getting a cancer diagnosis for the 3rd time now in the last 10 years and contemplating surgery for a 3rd time and whether it is worth it to go through that again, given the last surgery had such a difficult and long-lasting recovery. That is definitely a trial.

But, Lord, throughout all these events, we can count these as joy? Throughout all these events our eyes need to be centered on You realizing that Peace is not found simply in getting all of our messes fixed. But Peace is something you purchased for us. True peace is bigger than all of these trials. It is knowing that I will always be in Your presence and eternity with You is always in the cards and I never have to question my eternal outcome. Lord, help me to be defined by that sort of peace and not simply the unrest that occurs with these momentary events. Granted, Lord, you care for these events and I thank you for caring, but help me walk through them, realizing you are by side and you will do as you desire. And through that I can have peace.