10-13-2015

Good Morning All!!

          Isaiah 32:17; “The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.”

    While watching the baseball playoffs, I was thinking back to when I was coaching our high school age baseball team.  I remember this event like it was yesterday.  We were in our regional championship game and we were behind and it was late in the game.  We were behind by 2 with runners on base but with two outs.  I was coaching the bases and walked back to the dugout to look at something in the scorebook while the opposing coach talked to his pitcher.  As I went back to coach I overheard one of the dads say to his wife, “it’s a good thing your son isn’t batting or I think he would have to change his underwear.”  I never said a word but I smiled and thought he was probably right.  All I knew was the one player on my team that I wanted to be batting was.  He got the hit we needed and we went on to win.

   What was the difference?  The player at bat was confident he would hit the ball; the other player would have been sure he would have struck out.  To be fair to this player, he was one of the youngest and least experienced players on the team while the player at bat was one of the oldest; that matters.  But what mattered more was that the player batting believed he could hit the ball off this pitcher.  He had a lot of success in the past; when he saw the name of the pitcher in the lineup, his eyes lit up and he couldn’t wait to bat.  He was completely confident that he would hit the ball off of this pitcher.

   Most people do not realize how important confidence is when it comes to athletic competition.  When people ask why this guy or that guy is not scared or really nervous it is really quite simple, the athlete believes in his skill to accomplish the task at hand.  He is confident so he is calm.  As you watch athletic competition, the calm, quiet, confident athlete usually wins the challenge.

   The same can be true in our faith life.  The fruit of righteousness is peace.  This righteousness comes from Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.  We don’t earn it; our righteousness does not depend on you or me but it depends totally on God.  We can completely trust this righteousness to always be there.  We can have peace because no matter what happens this righteousness never dims or fails.

    So no matter what happens; no matter what occurs in your life, the righteous ness of Christ given to you will never fail.  So in any event of our life, we can face it confident that nothing will separate us from the love of Jesus.  We don’t have to get overly excited at the current events or the ups and downs in our life; we can have the quiet confidence that our victory is won and that our righteousness from Christ will defeat all of our enemies.  Christ has defeated all the enemies and he gives this victor’s crown to you as a gift from a loving God.  You can trust this always.

Gracious Father, calm my heart with the certainty of your grace and mercy.  Lead me to have peace in your righteousness.  Lead me to speak in the voice of confidence that I may share your comfort and hope to the lost world.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret