The Thoughts of Peace

UV 1610/10000 The Thoughts of Peace
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29 v 11
The Lord thinks thoughts of peace. The enemy of our souls thinks thoughts of evil. The Lord thinks of how to set us free, how to prosper us, how to enable us to lead healthy and blessed lives. He thinks of enabling us to live forever. The enemy thinks of how to take us captive, how to deceive us, how to impoverish us, how to cause sickness and destruction. The Lord’s thoughts of peace or Shalom are contained in His word. Peace can be physical peace that we enjoy in good health, mental peace or peace of mind, relational peace or peace I our relationships and spiritual peace The Lord knows our desires, needs and expectations. He thinks of how to fulfil and satisfy these. The enemy thinks of how to frustrate us, get us anxious, worried and depressed. This is the reason Jesus recognized the enemy as a “ thief, robber and killer.”
We can choose to believe God or to be deceived by the enemy of our souls. The latter packages evil in attractive wrapping. Like Eve and Adam, we will see it and find it good to look at, pleasant, beautiful and even tasty and pleasurable. When we choose to believe the latter and not the Lord, we are saying “no” to eternity, “no” to a lot of possibilities as well as to the impossible. God’s knowledge is certain and guaranteed to assure us of “Shalom” or a composite of peace, joy, prosperity, blessedness , health and wholesomeness. The uni-verse states that God knows but do we know? We need to increase in our knowledge of the thoughts of God. As we increase in such knowledge, we will be more blessed and our lives full of peace or Shalom. We need to distance ourselves from the thoughts and ways of the enemy of our souls. As we increase the distance, the possibilities of being robbed of our peace and joy become more remote.
Each thought of God for our eternal and absolute good is contained in every uni-verse or promise and command of the Lord. It is solid food for our soul and not just soup for the soul. Our expectations can never exceed God’s ability to fulfil and satisfy it. Of course, there is an element of waiting, suspense and the accompanying excitement and wonder how the Lord is going to fulfil His specific promise made and claimed by each of us. Indeed, the g-force that keeps us down is gravity but the G-force that lifts us up is grace.
Prateep V Philip