Enter:
· What is peace?
· What does it feel like to not have peace?
· How do you think we find God’s peace in the midst of difficult times?
Hear:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:16-26)
Pause:
· If the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists are a normal part of life when we live in God’s kingdom, what does that say about peace?
· If we grow in the Spirit, we will grow in peace, but how do we grow in God’s Spirit?
Reflection:
These trying times have resulted in an increased sense of anxiety for many people. Our normal routines have been interrupted and haven’t yet returned to anything resembling normality and our neatly held illusions of relative harmony in our land have been challenged and all that turmoil produces anxiety. Peace can seem like an elusive virtue in these anxious times. One of the reasons that a lot of us don’t have a lot of peace to offer to the current situation is that we didn’t bring a lot of peace into the current situation. The Psalms talk about being still and knowing that God is God (Psalm 46:10) and laying down in green pastures and being led beside still waters (Psalm 23), but none of that sounds much like the lives that a lot of us were leading, heading into the challenging events that have come so far in 2020. When the quarantine slowed life down for so many people, a lot of us didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of the relational issues and psychological issues that people have been hiding under the rug of busyness have been difficult to process. Into all this anxiety, depression, relational discord, and social unrest, Paul reminds us that the fruit of the Spirit is peace. Peace is the norm of life in God’s kingdom.
As we seek the peace of God that can be so elusive today, Eugene Peterson asks some good questions: “How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?” (The Contemplative Pastor 19). There are demands upon our time that are beyond our control. We need to make a living. We need to be there for our families. We need to do what we can to be instruments of God’s justice and mercy where we live, living as the hands and feet of Jesus. In honoring all those commitments, we also need to set good boundaries for our lives so that we leave space to cultivate our relationship with God. Spiritual Disciplines like Sabbath, worship, meditation, study, and devotional reading are all difficult or impossible to do while we are scurrying from place to place. Evaluating our own schedules can become a sort of spiritual discipline as we learn to cut out the things that keep us in perpetual motion, so that God’s Spirit can prepare our hearts for peace in the midst of circumstances that are beyond our control. Regularly looking at the things we do, how we spend our money, and the places we go gives us the opportunity for self-reflection: is a relationship with God one of my many pursuits or do all my pursuits draw their character from my relationship with God? Am I seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness above all else?
It’s ok to lament the circumstance we find ourselves in. There’s a lot about this Covid-19 situation and the uncertainty of the future and the instability of the economy and the politics of all of that that can be very frustrating. We can and should express all of that to God and do what we can to make a positive impact where we live. But I hope that in all of our frustration we don’t miss the opportunities of this moment to be still, experience God’s presence in the midst of our struggles, and grow in God’s Spirit. Growth in God’s Spirit produces the fruit of God’s Spirit and the fruit of God’s Spirit is peace. If you’d like to hear more about God’s peace, you can access a recent sermon in our Living Into A Kingdom Normal series on the spiritual fruit of peace by clicking here.
Wonder:
· Why do you think peace is so important?
· What changes can be made in our days to cultivate a greater sense of God’s peace?
Bless:
· Affirm what everyone has shared.
· Pray that God might help us to grow in His Spirit that our lives might more and more be characterized by God’s peace.
Pray together:
“Lord, we are grateful for your peace that comes, even through the most trying times of life. Help us to grow in your Spirit of peace. In the midst of this pandemic, the world’s hate, and the challenging political environment we find ourselves immersed in, help us to find ways to experience and share your peace. When times are hard, help us to remember that your peace “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). In the peaceful Spirit of Jesus we pray, Amen.”
We hope that you will join us online Sunday at 9:30 AM in Spanish and at 11:00 AM in English. We also have various Zoom Bible Studies and Sunday School classes that you can plug into; call the church office at 956-968-9585 for more information about those. May God fill your week with peace!