All We Need for Peace
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:2-3
When the Bible addresses the spiritual provisions of Christ it does so in the grandest of terms: “peace that passes all understanding;” “that they may have life and have it more abundantly;” “mounting up on wings as eagles;” and as above, “everything we need for life and godliness.” God paints a picture in His Word of living life with the glory and peace of a pristine mountain view, where peaceful waters flow through our hearts, where the air is spiritually sweet to our lungs, where we enjoy unbroken fellowship with the Lord, and where every day is more beautiful than the previous one.
Yet often, if we are honest, we don’t experience life on this level. Why not? What is wrong? What prevent us from possessing the peace that the Bible speaks about?
The problem is not with God the Giver; everything He has done has been perfect. The problem is with us as recipients, with the old sins of improper pride for what we have and unholy lust for what we have not. David Livingstone wrote to his daughter, “A life of selfishness is one of misery.” You have seen that peson who is chronically unhappy, always complaining about what was done to him, the life-is-unfair enthusiast, who never seems to change. When we see chronically unhappy people, what has happened to them to make them this way? Why are they always miserable? 
The sad reality is that they choose to be that way. Old human selfishness leads them to hang onto every offense, every problem, and never let go. They become prisoners of their own misery and that is the cause of their unhappiness, not the event itself, but their stubborn refusal to forgive, let go, and move on.
Like a child in a room full of playthings, whose toy someone has broken, who prefers to sit and cry over the broken toy, to cry out because of the injustice of the act against him, instead of moving on to another toy. We read in Ephesians 4:30-31, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, which whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger…” To grieve means to be sad because of loss, and the grieving of the Spirit means that He is saddened by our loss of opportunity. Continual spiritual immaturity really is a sad thing in view of all that the Father has planned for us, after all that Christ has done for us, and in light of all that the Spirit is prepared to do within us. And how do we grieve Him? One of the chief ways is by remaining bitter about life, not forgiving and moving on. Oh, there are a thousand of excuses we will make, blaming someone else for all of our lack of joy, but, again, we are like a child in a room full of toys who prefers to cry about one toy taken from his hands than rejoice in the others that are placed before him, prepared for him to enjoy.
As a pastor I have noticed that thing attitude seems to be passed through families. If you grew up in a family where bitternesses and betrayals and injustices were not released, where they were made to be larger in retrospect than they had been in fact, you will have a difficult time getting beyond this type of thinking. In fact, you may be spreading it to your children as well. Now is an evening to reverse this trend, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let go of the injustice, embrace the grace of God.
The Spirit inspired Peter to teach us that God’s plan is that we have grace and peace in abundance, and His divine power guarantees that this can be our possession. When trouble darkens our door, it is simply a matter of our faith: who will we believe? The problem, the betrayal, the painful moment, the unjust circumstance, or will we choose to believe God? If God’s word is true, and it is, if God keeps His promises, and He does, then defeats need not be crippling. We may grieve and be sad for a moment, but God will lead us into a period of peace and abundance of life.
God is giving you everything you need right now to experience His abundant supply of peace. Thank Him and by faith claim His gracious gift.
Lord, thank You for the gift of everything I need for life and godliness. Let me recognize the remedies You have provided to the troubling thoughts in my soul, and to claim them by faith. Let me release the anger and unforgiveness in my soul that is poisoning my thoughts and robbing me of joy. Let me enjoy the abundant bestowal of grace and peace You have planned, purchased, and now promise to provide. Amen.