Once you were saved then it’s only about bringing others to Jesus!

Somewhere between the boat and Jesus, Peter started paying attention to the waves and the wind instead of keeping his focus on Jesus. As soon as he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink into the water. You fit into this story at some point. Are you in the boat? Even though things may be a little rocky, you’re trying your best to maintain control of your life in the best way that you know how. Or have you made it across the sea and are walking on the top of the water in the middle of the storm because you have your eyes on Jesus, and you are holding His hand. Or maybe you have stepped out of the boat and are headed to Jesus. You’ve turned over control of your life to Him halfway. You’ll let Him handle eternity, but you’ll take care of life while you’re here. Maybe your caught somewhere in between self-control and Jesus-control that’s a pretty dangerous place to be. (James 1:8) says: a double-minded man is unstable in all he does. If you haven’t yielded control of your life – your struggles, your future, your past, and your fears, then you cannot have complete peace.

When you forget why you are here and turn your focus away from the job that you have been given, it is then that you start to struggle with one another over things that have no eternal significance whatsoever. You are here to bring people to Jesus! All this other stuff is just stuff. Never forget what your priority is. If you’ve got to get angry at someone, get angry at Satan. He’s the one that you are fighting!

Or maybe you’re holding onto anger and bitterness and hurt against someone in your life? You may have to dig a little bit to really get a good picture of your heart. Roots of bitterness, though not seen from above, reach way down into the heart and are very difficult to pull up. You will never have peace in your heart until the poison of anger and bitterness is removed, and is replaced with forgiveness and love.

When you have peace within your own heart, then you will have peace with the people around you. When you are rebelling against God over something that He is telling you to do, or when you have not spent the time with God that you needed to in order to bring peace in your own heart, it is then that you lash out at the people you love and create conflict over seemingly insignificant situations. (James 4:1-2) What causes fights and quarrels among you? They come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. Fights on the outside come from fights on the inside. If there is no peace within, then there will be no peace without.

Scripture talks about where to get that inner peace. Peace comes through a mind that doesn’t fear.

Most think that you get peace – by taking and maintaining control of every area of your life. You think that if you don’t take control of your life, someone is going to step all over you. They’ll interpret your kindness as a sign of weakness. Scripture says that it is by gentleness – not bulling your way through, not fighting for your own rights but turning over control to the One that’s in Control – that’s when you’ll have real peace.