Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” Isaiah 48:17-19 (ESV)
“Sylvester, go get me a switch and come here,” Mother said. I knew that I was about to get an attitude adjustment. When I returned with the hickory switch, she continued, “If you had just done what you were told, this wouldn’t be necessary.”
Obedience and peace go together like sausage and biscuits, eggs and bacon, or cookies and milk. Obedience doesn’t produce peace: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9 ESV). Obedience, however, is faith in action because “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17 ESV). And obedience produces peace.
As I grew into adolescence, I learned that obedience to Mother’s instructions allowed peace to flow steadily like a river. It wasn’t just a raindrop of peace here and there. It wasn’t a little trickle of peace, either. It was a constant, huge stream of flowing peace. It was the peace of staying out of trouble. It was the peace of knowing that I was on the right track. It was the peace of feeling the warmth of Mother’s smiles and Dad’s pride. It was the peace of knowing that I pleased them.
Dear Father, thank you for the peace we have through Jesus Christ. Forgive us our disobedience. Strengthen us with the peace of obedience. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be courageous today in the peace of obedience,