Peace and my Relationship with Christ
An excerpt from my 'Fruit of the Spirit Bible'.
Hebrews 7:1-3
Is your heart a prayer room? Visualize your heart as a place where you meet with Christ, the ultimate king of peace. I have written on this very metaphor in a book called Table of Inwardness. In this small book I pictured myself in concord with Jesus, sitting at a table set for two. The setting of my prayer rendezvous with Christ is always a garden of peace.
If there are things in my life that bring turmoil to the setting, I ask him to clear away the busy noise of my self-important agenda so that we can meet in peace. But how do we get rid of that busy inner noise that produces a restlessness in our hearts? This is difficult indeed. All of our lives, from the time we are first able to think, we talk to ourselves in our minds. We live all our lives in this never-ending stream of conversation. Our minds are chatty, never stopping to rest. We talk,talk,talk inside ourselves. To complicate the matter ''inside ourselves'' is the address we give to God, for here amid the chatter lives the Holy Spirit, always trying to get a word in edgewise. I have called the never-ending inner dialogue ''roof-brain'' chatter, a term I borrowed from Joseph Chilton Pearce.
This unending stream of mental commentary needs to come to a halt if Christ is ever to commune with us. I suggest focusing on Christ himself until we call the noise to silence. Then we can press on to hear the art of listening prayer.
At this point, peace is born in our lives. Into this new calm that we establish by silencing our busy minds. Christ makes his entry and is ours. He is ours for fellowship and ours for instruction. He is ours for friendship and commission. He is ours for the moderated life, ours for the life of peace.
* To begin a study on the topic of Peace and the Prince of Peace, turn to the home page on page 19.
An excerpt from my 'Fruit of the Spirit Bible'.
Hebrews 7:1-3
Is your heart a prayer room? Visualize your heart as a place where you meet with Christ, the ultimate king of peace. I have written on this very metaphor in a book called Table of Inwardness. In this small book I pictured myself in concord with Jesus, sitting at a table set for two. The setting of my prayer rendezvous with Christ is always a garden of peace.
If there are things in my life that bring turmoil to the setting, I ask him to clear away the busy noise of my self-important agenda so that we can meet in peace. But how do we get rid of that busy inner noise that produces a restlessness in our hearts? This is difficult indeed. All of our lives, from the time we are first able to think, we talk to ourselves in our minds. We live all our lives in this never-ending stream of conversation. Our minds are chatty, never stopping to rest. We talk,talk,talk inside ourselves. To complicate the matter ''inside ourselves'' is the address we give to God, for here amid the chatter lives the Holy Spirit, always trying to get a word in edgewise. I have called the never-ending inner dialogue ''roof-brain'' chatter, a term I borrowed from Joseph Chilton Pearce.
This unending stream of mental commentary needs to come to a halt if Christ is ever to commune with us. I suggest focusing on Christ himself until we call the noise to silence. Then we can press on to hear the art of listening prayer.
At this point, peace is born in our lives. Into this new calm that we establish by silencing our busy minds. Christ makes his entry and is ours. He is ours for fellowship and ours for instruction. He is ours for friendship and commission. He is ours for the moderated life, ours for the life of peace.
* To begin a study on the topic of Peace and the Prince of Peace, turn to the home page on page 19.