Psalm 34:14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Last week we talked about controlling tongue. Verse 14 goes along with verse 12-13 “Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, 13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.” If you didn’t read last weeks it would probably help you understand this weeks devotional if you read the other one first.
David ends this thought by giving us an alternative in verse 14 when he says, ‘Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’ Remember this about making our life a life we love and wanting more days of it. The best way we can do that is to have the best life we can, which only comes in Jesus Christ. When David says to turn from evil he is telling us to depart from it, to get away from it. Make a complete 180 from the evil in your life and start running and never stop running away from it. The cool thing is as you run away from evil you will be running closer and closer to the person God wants you to be!
The problem is, it is getting harder and harder to know what is evil and what is good. We want to do good like David tells us to but our society has things flipped upside down so bad we don’t know what is good and what isn’t. According to society things the Bible says aren’t good are made good, in fact we are told we are wrong if we stand against them. The only way to know what really is good is through the Holy Spirit speaking to us as we read God’s word and hear it preached. As you study the Bible more and more you will see just how far we have gotten away from how God has called us to live. Do you know you can only face one direction at a time. Try it, see if you can look two ways at the same time. Can’t do it, it isn’t physically possible our own. So which direction are you looking, and walking, towards evil or towards good?
David finally tells us to seek peace and pursue it. I love this. To seek means to, search out, strive after, seek with desire and diligence. Go after it like it was a million dollars just waiting for you because it is worth more than millions. When he ends by telling us to pursue it he means for us to chase after it. Do you get the picture? We are supposed to be using all the energy and time we can to chase after and grab ahold of peace! It should be our daily goal.
I love the word peace. Probably not for the same reason some do. I love it because if you study the bible you will find it used in different ways. First we see that we are to be at peace with God. As I have mentioned the bible tells us that we are God’s enemy before we are saved. When we are saved we come into peace with God. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice the peace treaty has been signed in his blood. We are at peace with God.
As Christians we are also called to live at peace with others. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is one of the hardest ones for us to live out. It is found in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” You know it doesn’t take a bible scholar to explain what that verse says, but it is one of the hardest verse to live out in our life. We are to be at peace with others. We are to do whatever we can do whatever we have to do and whatever we may not want to do so that we can be a peace with everyone! Maybe that means picking up the phone and telling someone you are sorry, or you were wrong. Ouch, those are words that don’t come easy. Paul tells us though, if there is something you can do to make it better, than do it!
Lastly, another peace the bible talks about is our own peace of mind. In 1 Peter 5:7 we are told to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Many people today, christians included do not have peace of mind. We let anxiety, stress and worry overtake our mind. We let our fears overcome our faith when in reality our faith should overcome our fears. Only when we truly understand God is in control Only when we completely trust Him and His plan for our life. Only when we surrender our life to Him fully will we have peace. A peace that passes all understanding Philippians 4:7.
1,) We talked about three different kinds of peace. Peace with God, peace with others and peace of mind. Explain where you measure up in regards to each of those areas in your life presently.