Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV.

God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 NKJV.

I love things that shake me out of my own wrong thinking. This continuation of Peter and Jesus in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, helps me long for closeness with the God of love and peace: “Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is – “Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ‘Feed My Sheep.’” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions – I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.”

Reading our chapter this morning, Ezekiel 34, I couldn’t help but think about today. How divided and conflicted we all are. Has mankind been this so absolutely convicted in our own beliefs in other ages? Or is it all just the availability of so many divisive opinions every moment of every day that causes us to not be able to be still and long for peace. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, sees it all in every age of mankind and He tells Ezekiel here…The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them…For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for My sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after My sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land…I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.’” v. 1-6, 11-13, 16. And the sheep? “‘As for you, My flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must My flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?..Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save My flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.’” v. 17-18, 21-24. And the final verses are of the covenant of peace that Creator God will bring…“‘I will make them and the places surrounding My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are My people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” v. 26-31.

This broken world generates fear. When we don’t know the love and peace of Creator God we know fear. When my heart knows fear for those I love, it feels like rusty iron within me and it hurts. Yesterday in the sermon we heard about the fruit of the Spirit – patience. And something so helpful. To choose the fruit of the patience of God extended by us to Creator God. He knows. He knows the needs of all of us. Listen to these words of Peter to all of us: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9. And every time I turn to God and am gathered to Him, I find His peace reassuring me He knows – and He is here. The world scatters us in great fear. He gathers us in His love and His peace.