An instrument of your peace.

Prayer of St. Francis:

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
 

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Can't Sleep?

For those like me who sometimes cannot sleep, I love these verses from Psalm 4 and the commentary that follows:

6 Many, LORD, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”
Let the light of your face shine on us.  

7 Fill my heart with joy
when their grain and new wine abound. 

8 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety.

G. Campbell Morgan (British Bible Scholar) points out that David finds safety in solitude with God.

“The thought of the word alone is ‘in loneliness,’ or as Rotherham renders it ‘in seclusion’; and the word refers to the one going asleep. This is a glorious conception of sleep. Jehovah gathers the trusting soul into a place of safety by taking it away from all the things which trouble or harass . . . the tried and tired child of His love is pavilioned in His peace.” 

Peace

Eph. 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." 

This morning, as with every morning, a million temptations will try to derail me.  I will try not to give in to sin and I will try not to intentionally sin.  I will implore the Holy Spirit to protect and buttress me.   Yet, I will succeed some and fail some.  Today, as all days, will end with a mixed result. 

However, despite the fact that I will succeed in not sinning some of the time and fail in my desire to be obedient at other times, I am at peace.  My "successes" do not justify me and and "failures" do not condemn me.
  

Rom. 10:9-10, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;  for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." 

Rom. 11:6, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace."

Gal. 2:16, "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

Romans 8:1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.