And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever (Isa. 32:17).
The effect of unrighteousness is just the opposite--trouble, turmoil, restlessness, sleeplessness, worry, dis-ease of soul. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isa. 57:20).
The grace of God reconciles the soul to Himself, "quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest" (The Desire of Ages, p. 336). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).
In our day scuba diving has become popular. Its devotees tell us that while the surface of the sea may be lashed with storms, a few fathoms down it is always quiet and calm, and everything is at peace.
In the midst of World War II a European Christian remarked, "On the surface there is storm, but 20 fathoms down there is quiet and calm." So the righteousness of Christ, received by faith, brings peace to the person who is no longer at war with God, and that peace brings assurance.
Passing a crowd on his way to church in London one day, Lord Guthrie heard a layperson addressing the people. He was saying, "I have not been to college, but I have been to Calvary." That day Lord Guthrie heard Canon Liddon, James Oswald Dykes, and C. H. Spurgeon speak. After a lapse of many years he said he could not remember one single sentence of those celebrated preachers that day, but that he had never forgotten the words of the earnest layperson who had the assurance in his heart: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Now the God of peace...make you perfect in every good work to do his will...through Jesus Christ" (Heb. 13:20, 21).
The effect of unrighteousness is just the opposite--trouble, turmoil, restlessness, sleeplessness, worry, dis-ease of soul. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isa. 57:20).
The grace of God reconciles the soul to Himself, "quiets the strife of human passion, and in His love the heart is at rest" (The Desire of Ages, p. 336). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).
In our day scuba diving has become popular. Its devotees tell us that while the surface of the sea may be lashed with storms, a few fathoms down it is always quiet and calm, and everything is at peace.
In the midst of World War II a European Christian remarked, "On the surface there is storm, but 20 fathoms down there is quiet and calm." So the righteousness of Christ, received by faith, brings peace to the person who is no longer at war with God, and that peace brings assurance.
Passing a crowd on his way to church in London one day, Lord Guthrie heard a layperson addressing the people. He was saying, "I have not been to college, but I have been to Calvary." That day Lord Guthrie heard Canon Liddon, James Oswald Dykes, and C. H. Spurgeon speak. After a lapse of many years he said he could not remember one single sentence of those celebrated preachers that day, but that he had never forgotten the words of the earnest layperson who had the assurance in his heart: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Now the God of peace...make you perfect in every good work to do his will...through Jesus Christ" (Heb. 13:20, 21).
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