Oude Kerk, Delft

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph. 6:15

      Last night I began a new series on I Corinthians 13 with our Wednesday night crowd. It’s called Ferocious. I began my final preparations for the class yesterday morning. After an hour of prayer I set up the “classroom in the sanctuary: I set up the dividers and broke out the portable white board ; I created my teaching space and printed out the hand outs and the big classroom sign I had created for the event; Then I set about creating the Spotify music list I wanted playing as people arrived . But preparation for the class actually began a long time ago before I was even asked to teach : There was the actual writing of the blogs from which the class is derived, the life lessons I had to go through so that I could grasp some of the material, and over the last months the organizing of all that material into a cohesive unit that would draw people for seven weeks of classes.

     I got thinking of all this preparation in light of Ephesians 6:15. Paul admonishes “let your feet be  shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph. 6:15″. 

    Now there was a time I thought peace was the important part in that verse and it probably still is; But today I am focused on the fact that I’ve been missing that little word “preparation” . The Greek word is “hetoimasia”, which is,”the act of preparing or the condition of a person or thing so far forth as prepared” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

    I have been begging for just a little peace for a while now which means I have been asking God to quiet things down in my life and those lives around me. But like my class I am realizing that peace isn’t something that just happens. In fact Jesus said that life in this world would never offer peace outright“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

    The world can only ever offer trouble. Peace doesn’t come from circumstances it comes from Jesus and I am coming to it that accessing the peace of Jesus involves intentional planning just like my class does. If I am to have peace I must prepare a peaceful heart for myself in the midst of a world that is never going to be overly peaceful. So how am I going to prepare my heart for peace? God has shown me three things I am to do.

1. I am going to pray focused on God rather than on problems:Isaiah 26:3 reads “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

The longer I live as a Christian the more I learn that effective prayer is about praying in the positive and not about praying out the negative.

2. I am going to intentionally schedule quiet time. I had a coaching session yesterday in which I realized I need an intentionally scheduled quiet time away from people AND electronics if I am going to maintain a peaceful attitude throughout the week. I need to schedule some time alone in a garden or by a lake.

3. I am going to begin to schedule with the word “no” in mind.  If I am to prepare for peace I have to start living within the boundaries of God’s expectations for me and I have to stop being guided by the expectations of others.

These are three things I feel I need to do to prepare for peace. What are some of the things you do to create peace around yourself?