When we contemplate the goodness and majesty of the Lord we have peace.

Peace will always elude the nations of the earth until the Prince of Peace arrives on the scene. This is because the Prince, unlike the other rulers of the world, seeks not His own will but the will of the One who has sent Him.

In the meanwhile we are to keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus. He sits as King of the flood of the circumstances that threaten to drown us, as the bulwark against the fires that would consume us.

It is grace that has brought us safe thus far and grace will bring us home, if we do not turn away from the Lord.

Life is filled with dread, ambition, lust, pressure, unrest of every description. Only in Jesus is there peace. The peace we know today will lead to greater peace tomorrow until finally we are in perfect peace—not because we are in Heaven but because we are totally in Jesus. Remember, the sin and unrest we are experiencing in the world today originated around the very Throne of God in Heaven as Satan decided to exert his self-will.

We will not have peace until our own self-will has been lost in the perfect will of God.

"Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it is in Heaven."

Then, and only then, will we enjoy perfect peace.

Patience

Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:4—NIV)

Notice above that perseverance is performing a work in us. It is bringing us to maturity and completion so we lack nothing in character transformation.

There are two aspects of patience. One is somewhat passive, the idea of longsuffering and the enduring of problems and trials; the other is more active having to do with persevering in the face of obstacles.

Perhaps they both come together as meaning keeping on what you are doing without quitting, without complaining or losing heart.

There is no virtue more important to salvation than that of patient endurance in doing good, in following the Lord. The Lord Jesus informed us that the believer who endures to the end will be saved.

All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22—NIV)

The writer of the Book of Hebrews tells us the same thing.

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (Hebrews 3:14—NIV)

Today's Evangelical teaching is out of balance. We know from the Scriptures that salvation is past, present, and future. At some point in the past we made a definite commitment to Christ. Today we are working out our own salvation. We will come to share in Christ in the future if we hold firmly to the end.

But currently we are presenting salvation as though it were a ticket. Once we get our ticket we are safe until we die or until the Lord comes.

To be continued.