John 14:21, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Every one of us desires peace. We want peace in our mind. We want peace in our marriage. We want peace in our circumstances. We want peace in our home. “Peace at any cost,” we cry out.  But what kind of peace are we looking for? Is it God’s idea of peace or ours?

“I feel God’s peace in my heart,” says a wife who is leaving her husband. Perhaps her marriage has been a battlefield of wills and constant stress. What relief to get out of the situation! But is this God’s peace? No, the good feeling is a relief from the battle.

“I feel such peace now,” exclaims a mother who has just had a tubal ligation. Is this really the peace of God? No, it is relief! Great relief!  This mother no longer has to put up with the pressure of family and friends to stop having children. Stress between her and her husband is alleviated. She no longer has to worry about having any more babies. No more sleepless nights.  No more bother! Relief – yes, but it is a false sense of peace. The true peace of God does not counteract His commandments or His basic design for our lives. We cannot have God’s peace when we willingly interfere with the way that He divinely created us. It is playing God.

“We feel peace about our decision,” a couple acknowledge as they leave their church. Maybe their church has been going through difficulties and strife. The easiest way out is to leave! This seems to be normal behavior today. If there are problems in the marriage, walk out. If things aren’t going “my way” in the church, walk out! And then they feel a sense of relief that can be interpreted as peace.

But God’s peace, the peace that passes all understanding, is not relief from stress. It is not walking out on the battle. It is not taking the easy way out.  It is finding God’s grace and rest in your circumstances. When our daughter, Evangeline, was hemorrhaging inwardly for many weeks and pregnant with her seventh baby (it was the biggest hemorrhage the ultra sound guy had ever seen), when her life and her baby’s life were at stake, she lived in a state of absolute peace. I have to confess that we were in a state of concern but her confidence was in God who is the God of peace. Later God miraculously healed her, but she lived in peace and rest even when she did not have her healing.

It is not necessarily God’s peace just because we have a good feeling. We experience God’s peace when we walk according to God’s divine laws and His commandments. Isaiah 48:18 says, “Oh that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river.” If what we are doing does not line up with God’s Word, it is a false sense of peace. I love the words in Psalm 85:10, “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

It is very easy to bring God down to our level of thinking. We are prone to walk humanistically and this is where we can be deceived by a false peace. God speaks to us in Psalm 50:21 and says, “You thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.” God is not like us. He is God. We cannot bring Him down to our level. We can’t make Him fit into our circumstances. We have to live on His terms.

May God help each one of us, including me, to discern what is true peace.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, the God of truth and peace, please help me to discern your peace in my life. Save me from falling into false peace because of getting my own way. Help me to discern between relief and peace. Thank you, Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Much of what we see and experience of Christmas today is total antipathy to the birth of Jesus that we are supposed to be remembering. We have Christmas trees, decorations, lights, tinsel, Santa Claus, and an over abundance of food. The first Christmas was one of poverty, but Christmas today is commercialized, often luxurious and millions of dollars are thrown around.

The first Christmas was a very humble one. It was not glamorous. Today, if a couple were so poor that they had to have their baby in a dirty animal stable, the Social Services would take their baby away from them. But 2000 years down the line, it seems that the humility of Christmas has been forgotten.

I think it would be good to remind ourselves of the true reality of Christmas, don’t you?

1. The humility of Mary.

Mary was a humble maiden with a humble lineage. She was not a royal princess. She was not a High Priest's daughter. She was not rich. Mary herself confesses in her song, "He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.... He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree...” (Luke 1:48-49) But God chose this unknown virgin to bring forth His precious Son. He chose her because she was a willing vessel. Often those who have everything materially, are not willing vessels. God is not looking for riches and material possessions. He is looking for women with obedient hearts - mothers who will welcome to their hearts the children whom God has planned to send them. He is looking for those who have the same spirit Mary had when she said, "Be it unto me according to thy Word." (Luke 1:38) She was totally surrendered to the will of the Lord. In the face of poverty, ridicule, rejection and estrangement, she embraced this child who would be the Savior of the world.

I will never forget going to the famous art gallery in London and seeing a painting of Mary. It was such an anointed picture. The artist had captured the look of total submission and abandonment to the will of God upon her face. It was amazing. I looked and looked at it for hours. The caption was the very words, "Be it unto me according to thy Word."

2. The humility of Joseph.

Joseph was a humble carpenter from a humble village. Do you remember that Nathanael said of Jesus, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46) His own residents of Nazareth spurned him and asked, “Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55)

3. The humility of His birthplace.

Jesus was born in a manger in a barn with the smells and messes of the animals all around. Jesus was born to be King, but God didn't provide a palace for His Son in which to be born. He didn't provide a doctor, nurses and hospital. There was no cradle, beautifully draped with lace and frills. Only straw! Was there even that? No Christmas card paints the true reality of the scene.

If this was the beginning of the Son of God, why do we, the sons and daughters of God, expect that we should have all the niceties of life? Of course, if God blesses us with them, we will receive them with joy, but should we expect them? Everything surrounding the birth of Jesus was humble. It is interesting that in the body of Christ we have the "Faith movement" and the "Discipleship movement" and so on. But has anyone ever heard of the "Humility movement"? We don't take to this aspect so well, do we? And yet this is how God planned for His beloved Son to be born. And this is how he lived all through His life. Shouldn't humility also be the hallmark of our Christian experience?

Isn't it so amazing that God chose to bring forth His beloved Son through the process of birth? He could have sent him down from Heaven on a chariot of fire! He could have sent a legion of angels to escort Him from the majesty of heaven. But no! He chose for Jesus to be conceived and nurtured in a womb, to be born of a woman, the way that God planned for all human life to come into this world.

Surely this raises birth to a high estate. What a privilege to give birth and give life to children, the very same way that Jesus came into the world? How blessed we are as women.

4. The humility of Jesus' dedication.

After the days of a mother's purification, the parents took the baby to the temple to be dedicated. They had to bring a lamb to be sacrificed for the dedication. However, if they could not afford a lamb, they brought two turtle doves or young pigeons. (Leviticus 12:6-8) The account in Luke 2:23-24 tells us that Joseph and Mary brought doves or pigeons. They belonged to the poor class. They couldn't afford to bring a lamb. And yet God chose from the poorer class to bring forth the King of kings and Lord of lords.

We don't have to own our own home and have all the modern conveniences before we are ready to have a baby. All we have to have is willing and welcome hearts. God will always provide for the children He sends. The poor who have children are richer than the wealthy who reject children. Isn't that so true?

May you have a wonderful Christmas together with your family. May God keep all our hearts focused on the humility of His birth, rather than tinsel and toys.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Dear Lord Jesus, Thank you for leaving the glory of heaven to come to this earth. Thank you for humbling yourself to become a little baby. Thank you for being humiliated for me. Thank you that you came to die, and to die for my sin. How can I ever thank you adequately? But with all my being I worship and love you. Amen.”

QUOTE:

Zechariah 9:9 NAS, “Behold your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey”

Psalm 33:13-15 RUV, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.”
 

How amazing that God individually fashions each new inhabitant of the earth. There is not one who is the same.  Not only does this cause us to worship our awesome and creative God but also it liberates us to be the special person God created us to be.

I am different to everyone else in the world. Oh how I love this truth. I am free from all bondages of having to be like anyone else. You also are a unique and different person.  You are different to every other person on this planet! This means that you don’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standard for you. You don’t have to conform. You are free to be you! The world is waiting to see the “you” that God created you to be. Your family is waiting to see the true “you.”

My three daughters have my genes and my training but somehow I didn’t make them clones. They are all different. I would put each of them in the top ten of mothers, and yet each one of them mothers their children differently. They discipline differently. They run their homes differently. They express themselves and order (or non-order) their lives according the individual anointing that God created in their hearts.

Dear mother, you don’t have to try to be like someone else to find your identity. You don’t even have to mother the same as a particular mother you admire, or according to some rules in a book. All you have to do is to mother according to your own heart and your individual personality. This is how you will be the best mother and the best homemaker.

I remember as I watched our first child grow. I couldn’t wait for him to be like me. I expected him to love books and to love to study! But no! He wasn’t interested in reading books. He had a different personality. He had different interests. It took time for me to come to the realization that this was a person who was different to anyone else who had ever lived before and anyone else would ever live again. My responsibility was not to conform him to my individualistic tastes but to look for the divine giftings that God had given him and encourage him to grow into the person God had planned him to be. (I must pop in here that of course we teach our children to confirm to the rules of our home and the principles of God’s Word). 

I often think of Lamech in Genesis 4:20-22 who had three sons and yet each one was uniquely different. Jabal was a cattleman and loved the animals and the outdoor life. Jubal was a musician and invented the harp and the flute. Tubal-Cain opened the first foundry; He loved to work with his hands, forging instruments of bronze and iron. If I could have looked into the future when my children were little, I could never have imagined the things they are doing today. They are far more exciting, creative and far-reaching than I would have planned.

Think about it. You were born to reflect a special image of God in this earth. You were born to reveal the creative love of God from your heart in a way that no one else can. Pour yourself out to touch others with God’s love. Don’t hold back. Don’t deprive the world of seeing the unique hand of God upon your life.

Do the same for your husband. He doesn’t have to be like you! Can you believe it? He is unique too. Stop trying to conform him and let him be who God created him to be and let him do what God has put in him to do. It might be different to what you have planned but it will better than your idea.  And do it for your children too. This is the great challenge of parenting. You can’t parent them all the same. God has created each one of their hearts individually!

Would you like to enter into this liberating path for you and your family? It will be challenging, yes, but it will also take all the pressure off! You will start to enjoy yourself. But one word of caution – you won’t find who you are by looking into yourself. You will find your true identity as you pursue God and know Him and pour your life out for others. The more you know of God the more you’ll understand who He created you to be.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Father, my God and my Creator, I thank you and worship you for how you made me totally individualistic. You created me to worship you in a way that no one else will ever do. You created me to touch other people’s hearts in a way that no one else ever will. You created me to bring glory to your wondrous name through the individuality that you divinely imparted in me. Oh Lord, I embrace how you made me. I accept it and I will no longer try to be like anyone else. I thank you for the way you made me! From this moment I will walk in this liberating path. Help me to see my husband as the distinct person that he is. Help me to release my children to be the special individuals you created them to be. Thank you again for your personal and individual love for me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Numbers 30:1-2, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

Last week we talked about how marriage is not only a covenant between the husband and wife but also a covenant with God. And God wants us to be covenant keepers. This makes the marriage contract far more serious than society looks upon it today.

“But you don’t know how difficult my marriage situation is,” you reply. Let’s look at another example in the Word of God which is given for our admonition.

It is the story of Jephthah, one of the judges of Israel. When he went out to war against the Ammonites he made a vow to the Lord that if God gave him the victory he would sacrifice to the Lord the first thing to come out of his house on his return. Tragically, the first one to come out of his home was his beloved daughter, his only child. Jephthah was devastated. “When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “My daughter!” he cried out. ‘My heart is breaking! What a tragedy that you came out to greet me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and cannot take it back.’” (Judges 11:34-35 NLT)

Oh what a distraught father! But he had made a vow and could not take it back. He could not annul it. The Israelites understood the solemnity of vows and covenants. In this situation, he did not sacrifice his daughter’s life as that was against God’s laws, but instead he sacrificed her to be a virgin all her life (which was as bad as death for an Israelite daughter).

It cost Jephthah unbelievable heartache to keep his vow. Psalm 15:1,4 also speaks about this issue. “Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly… who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” In other words, once he has made a covenant, an oath or a vow, he will not retract, even though it will be to his own hurt.  One translation says, “no matter how much it costs!”

Covenants are made to keep – through the good times and the hard and tough times. That’s why we make the covenant – we covenant to stick to our vows through thick and thin! That’s what marriage is all about it. It is covenant made before God to “have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love, to cherish, and to obey, till death us depart, according to God’s holy ordinance, and thereto I pledge thee my troth.” (Original wedding vows)

Are you finding it hard to keep to your marriage vows? Let me encourage you with an inspiration that a woman of God once wrote in Above Rubies… “The tide always comes in again.” There are many times that the tide goes out in a marriage. You no longer feel loved. You don’t have any of your own love left yourself. You feel abused and rejected. You feel unappreciated. When the tide goes out you see all the ugly things that have been swept up on the beach and so you see all the ugly and detestable things in your husband. But just wait a minute. The tide always comes in again! It must happen. It is an eternal law. And when it does the waves of God’s love, forgiveness and grace will cover all the ugly things and you will be glad that you waited, hung on and were faithful to your vows.

I believe we need to be reminded of these Scriptures too:

Deuteronomy 23:21, “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.”

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay.”

Love from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Oh God, help me to see the solemnity of my marriage vows. Help me to keep the covenant I have made with you and with my husband. Help me to be faithful and true, even when the going is tough. Thank you for you grace and your strength, oh Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

P.S. For those who would like to do further study, here are more Scriptures about keeping to our vows:

Job 22:27b; Psalm 22:25b; 50:14; 66:13-14; 116:14. 

Examples of others who kept their vows even when it was not easy:

Here are some promises:

Exodus 19:5, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine.”

Psalm 103: 17-18, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, ad his righteousness unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”