Do you ever feel like you’re never quite good enough? Does it feel like your own or someone else’s expectations for you can’t quite be reached no matter how hard you try? Unattainable expectations are not peaceful so why do we keep trying to attain them? If we are doing God’s will for our life then we will have peace. We know what Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) says, it’s a popular text: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The KJV says God has thoughts of peace towards us.

Peace. Most of us would like to live a more peaceful life. But it seems as if something always comes along to disturb our peace; coworkers, family, random people we don’t know and personal ‘beat myself up’ thoughts as well as worried thoughts. 

When was peace first interrupted? When Satan decided his wisdom was greater than Gods. He wanted to be set free from “the rules”. He wanted to “do his own thing”. He wanted everyone to think he was the greatest. Now think about it for a moment, could this be why we have so little peace? We like to think all the rules don’t apply to us, we want to break free and do our own thing and secretly we want others to think we are the greatest…at least the greatest at something. So we set about living life with unrealistic expectations about how people should treat us. And when it doesn’t happen that way? Our peace is disturbed.  

Let’s go back to never being quite good enough. When I was a kid and the teacher sent home a report card I usually felt pretty good about it. Then my mom would look at it. It didn’t matter if I had all “A’s” I could have done better somehow. Then there were the expectations from my dad, there was just no way I would ever be as good as my sister.  

So we try to live up to others expectations and we try to live up to our expectations. But what about the plans (expectations) God has for us? The same pride Satan had that led to his downfall leads to our downfall as well. We think we don’t have pride because we beat ourselves up over how awful we are. Awful, because we can’t meet our own expectations, but if we truly believe the promises of God, then Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that Gods plans for us will bring us peace. 

God does have a plan for us. And since He has a plan for us He will also make sure we have everything we need to complete that plan. 

God’s plan for us includes hope, but how much hope do we have when we feel like we can never reach the mark?  

Let’s take a look at Moses. God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In Exodus 4:10-12 Moses told God he couldn’t speak well. And God told him, I will go with you and teach you what to say.  

Who led the Israelites through the desert? If you said Moses, you are right. But who led Moses through the desert? When the people needed food, Moses didn’t pick up the phone and make a call to Pizza Hut. No. God sent them manna to eat every day. When they needed water God provided it. When they needed to cross the Red Sea, Moses didn’t call up his skills as an engineer and build a bridge or try to teach the people how to swim. God sent a mighty wind and created a dry path across the sea and to top it off he destroyed the enemy following them with one mighty swoosh of water.  

Moses did what God called him to do, but God gave him the power to do it. What would it look like if you decided to follow the plans God has for you? He is able to do far more than we can ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20). Moses didn’t know how to get the people across the Red Sea so he asked God. What was impossible for Moses was possible for God. The only way to have God’s peace in our lives is to give up desiring our own will and seeking God’s will first, in all things. We need to humbly give up everything to God. Everything. Not just everything except this one tiny little thing over here, because that one tiny little thing over there is the thing that disrupts your peace the most.  

When you look out over the land of sin in your life it probably looks terribly big and undefeatable. You have been contending with those sins your whole life and more than likely given up and given in because it’s what your heart desires to do. Most of the time we enjoy our sin, we think we will give up sin ‘some day’ but not today, today it’s too hard and we are too tired and people are so annoying. And we fear if we kick sin out life won’t be fun any more.  

Instead of perceiving moving forward in the barren land of sin as something to be dreaded, we need to re-think it as the land of victory. God has already overcome sin and therefore as you move forward by his power you can be victorious, not by your power but by His. Look at the story of David and Goliath, a huge giant stood between David and victory, but he believed God would overcome his enemy…our enemies are Gods enemies…and he picked up five stones and by faith received victory.  

I’ve heard it said David picked up five stones because Goliath had four brothers. If that is true then David was so sure of God’s victory he only picked up one stone for each enemy. Don’t you want to live like that? Instead of trembling at the prospect of once again falling in defeat at the feet of temptation and having the life crushed out of us by sin, we need to follow Davids example and prepare for victory. When Goliath crashed to the ground, the Israelite army rejoiced. Can you imagine their fear and trembling as a boy walked across the field with only a sling shot for protection to do the job of a grown man? A job they were too afraid to do? If he lost the fight, they would be servants of the Philistines.  

The land of fear now rejoiced in freedom from the enemy and that is what happens when we rely on God to overcome our sin for us, we pick up our stones, we prepare to resist, our hearts desire victory and we know our God can defeat the enemy for us. We know our God will defeat the enemy for us because He has promised. Just like the Israelites when God defeats the enemy we rejoice in our freedom. 

David’s weapon of choice was his slingshot and with God’s help he slew the enemy.  We need to carry our weapons into the war against sin.  I’m going to suggest to you that we will not get far in our battle against sin without putting on our shoes of peace. (Ephesians 6:15) Have you ever tried walking across gravel without your shoes on? Or maybe just across pavement that has little pieces of this and that on it? It’s frustrating and painful and annoying isn’t it? And isn’t that how life is when you aren’t wearing your shoes of peace? People are annoying, frustrating situations occur, but with Gods peace those people and situations are no longer annoying. So how do you attain this kind of peace? Only humility can give you this kind of peace. Without humility, when something annoying happens to us, we say something like this,”How dare they do that to me?” When you have Gods humility living in you it no longer matters that someone took your place in line or you were cut off in traffic or your husband never replaces the toilet paper roll. Humility allows us to live in the land of peace.  

The five stones we need to pick up and prepare to fight the enemy with are humility, peace, strength, victory and joy.

The first stone we need to pick up when we face the enemy of temptation is humility. Humility admits we are unable to overcome Goliath on our own. Humility will allow God to slay our giants and create a land of peace for us to live in. Peace will give us strength…isn’t it true that in a roomful of chaos it’s the peaceful person who has strength because nothing can ruffle their feathers? They are not out of control because the peace of God is in control of their land. The strength they now possess will give them victory. Victory over the Goliaths in life. Most of our Goliaths really aren’t that big, they are more like the size of a small stone that has gotten in your shoe, but that small stone is incredibly annoying and inconvenient and might as well be the size of a boulder at the irritation it causes us.  

David’s victory over Goliath caused great joy. Joy for David and joy for the rest of the Israelites. When we live in victory over temptation, including the small irritations of life, then not only do we live in joy but it will create joy in those around us also. So humility will give us peace and peace will give us strength and strength will give us victory and victory gives us joy and joy walks hand in hand with peace.

David walked out to face Goliath with humility knowing only God could slay Goliath. No one else would do it because they were relying only on their own strength to kill Goliath and they knew they couldn’t do it. We don’t need to worry about the death of Goliath, the only death we need to be concerned about is our own. Will we die to self and live in the land of peace or will we continue to shrink our land by holding tightly to what we believe we deserve? Do you want to live your life fighting for your place in line and grumbling about how unfair life is or would you rather live in the land where God fights your battles and you enjoy the rewards of His peace and joy? 

Living in the land of peace does not mean Goliath will no longer tempt you, it also does not mean the little rocks won’t get in your shoes and try to annoy you, what it does mean is that the rocks will no longer annoy you and Goliath will no longer have the power to defeat you. 

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) The truth will make you free! We want to be free. But what do we imagine we will be made free from? The Israelites, when in slavery to the Egyptians, imagined themselves set free from their enemies. Do you have enemies you would like to be set free from? I imagine you do. Maybe your boss or co-workers are annoying. Or maybe your sisters husband is so annoying you can barely tolerate going to family functions. There are no more warm fuzzy Christmas feelings because your brother-in-law stole them all, in fact you are pretty sure he is closely related to the Grinch. Or what about those idiots on the road? The ones that cut you off or fail to use their turn signal? Or the twenty-something single young man who could use some exercise who steals your close parking spot and you’re the one with three kids under the age of five who now needs to drag them into the store from the far end of the parking lot? Or how about all the times you have pulled through a fast food establishment and not gotten what you ordered?

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt they were excited. Truth had set them free. The truth of the prophecy from 400 years before had finally happened. Gods words were true and they rejoiced leaving their enemies behind. The way they saw it the truth had set them free. But they had just begun the journey. God wanted to take them not only further in their physical journey towards the promised land but He also wanted to lead them on a spiritual journey of the heart.

The truth does set you free, but the truth wants you dead.  Dead to self. The truth will set us free from our enemy, but who is our enemy? Not the hateful boss. Not the guy who cuts you off in traffic. Not your brother-in-law. Not the Egyptians. Not the worker at McDonalds. Your real enemy is the devil. It is pointless to become angry at your hateful boss, the guy who cuts you off in traffic, your brother-in-law or the worker at a restaurant. They are not the ones who made you angry. Your anger came from within your own gates. Pride activated your anger and your very own pride caused you to stumble and fall. Truth came to set your heart free. Truth came to shine the light in your heart so you could see the enemy that causes you to stumble comes from within and not from without.

The Israelites thought that once they had been set free from the Egyptians their lives would be perfect living in the land of milk and honey. But they are an example of being set free from their human enemies but still being enslaved to the enemy that lived within their own hearts.

The truth will set you free from self. It will not set you free from annoying people. It is a painful, soul wrenching experience to evict pride. Our pride protects us from reality. Our pride tells us lies we like to believe. It’s my pride that tells me I shouldn’t be cut off in traffic. It’s my pride that says my boss should always be nice to me. It’s my pride that says my fast food order should always be right.

We think if only we were treated as we deserve we would be happy. But I can be pretty sure even kings and queens, who are treated with all kinds of respect, are not always happy. Why? Because true joy does not come from the admiration of our fellow man. True joy is experienced not by seeking our own glory, but by seeking the glory of God.

God’s wisdom and beauty are like a fall day. The leaves fall from the trees and die, but there is a beauty in death to self. The thought of death to self brings a cold chill to the heart like winter. But God will raise up the soul who dies to self believing in Him and His power. The beauty of new life will replace the death and soon the heat of the Holy Spirit will take hold of the heart and the new small plants of spring will bear fruit for Him. The cycle continues, you continue to die to self and God continues to provide new life and fruit.