THE MISSING PEACE Unlock and Sustain Peace in Your Daily LifeSample

Day 4:

A-CTS

FEAR & COMFORT

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

Acts 9:31

It is not an accidental coincidence that the comfort of the Holy Spirit is mentioned and parlays nicely with the fear of the Lord. The peace within the church was attributed to these two components. As we know, the Holy Spirit (aka our helper and comforter) lives within believers as a North Star and spiritual compass that provides wisdom, direction, rest for our souls, and discernment. As our fear and admonition of the Lord goes, so goes our ministry and the effectiveness of our mission. There is certainly an intentional cohesion God creates between fear, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit.

Rarely do we associate fear with peace. Our carnal minds are conditioned to gravitate toward a feeling or an emotion that the world tells us is associated with fear. The natural mind views fear as the antithesis of a peaceful state. However, followers of Christ are trained to understand that the fear of the Lord is the combination of reverence, respect, admiration, honor, and love all wrapped into one lens. The Bible tells us it’s the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), reinforced by regular confirmations of the Holy Spirit. Essentially, those factors are designed to spiritually breed our state of contentment and peace. As in many instances, we disconnect intended meanings when we merge the natural and the supernatural realms. Clarity gets compromised when we fail to compartmentalize our flesh and our spirit.

It’s safe to assume we all desire multiplication of our ministry, resources, opportunities, and relationships. Those are all good, Godly desires when they are aligned with God’s heart and call for our lives. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts as we delight in Him (Psalm 37:4). As we read Acts 9:31, we can be encouraged by the recipe for multiplication and the peace as a byproduct thereof. We are well served to ask the Holy Spirit to quicken and convict us in moments where we engage in a misguided chase of worldly peace. Many of us think we are on the right path for cultivating peace and that we can just plug-n-play success and achievement to fill that tank when it’s empty. The growth of the early church tells a different story. It is evident that when we fear the Lord, the comfort and peace of the Holy Spirit is soon to follow. That is a sustainable model for procuring permanent peace.