A Promise of Peace Restored

A Promise of Peace Restored

(Amos 9:11-15)

Yearly Theme:  “Peace is…”

Series Title:  “Peace Lost”

May 9^th, 2021

Something to think about:

Many of us are at a place that we could use a good dose of peace. It’s not hard to accept that we live a world that is without peace, in fact, we can become expectant that chaos and conflicts will constantly be in our midst. However, we don’t often recognize how valuable it is until we lose it in our own lives. When we lose our peace, we can lose ourselves to depression, addiction, overeating, starvation, and broken relationships, just to name a few. We find ourselves searching desperately to find the peace we lost. When we lose our peace we are at our most vulnerable. As believers, we should be at peace at all times. The world’s influences and attacks threaten that peace, but it doesn’t change that we have access to it, through Jesus Christ. So why is that you and I struggle to find it and maintain it?

Amos, a prophet of God, speaks truth to God’s people getting ready to lose their peace. The first 9 ½ chapters of Amos is filled with God’s displeasure and judgement due to their choices. These choices have led to the worship of idols, the compromise of values and broken relationships. He will bless this behavior and will remove His hand, leaving His people to the consequences of their own choices. When we start to live out the consequences of our choices, we lose all peace. But God, being the very nature of hope and love offers a sign of hope. When His people seek Him again, He will restore the peace.

Amos 9:11-15 (NLT),
^{Promise of Peace Restored}

¹¹ “In that day I will restore the fallen house of David.
    I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins I will rebuild it
    and restore its former glory.
¹² And Israel will possess what is left of Edom
    and all the nations I have called to be mine.”
The Lord has spoken,
    and he will do these things.

¹³ “The time will come,” says the Lord,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
    than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
    will drip with sweet wine!
¹⁴ I will bring my exiled people of Israel
    back from distant lands,
and they will rebuild their ruined cities
    and live in them again.
They will plant vineyards and gardens;
    they will eat their crops and drink their wine.
¹⁵ I will firmly plant them there
    in their own land.
They will never again be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,”
    says the Lord your God.

This promise rings true today. God wants to restore peace in our lives, but we must first do our part to claim that promise. We must first recognize how we lose our peace and secondly how to get our peace restored.

Key Point:  “Peace comes when we seek restoration”

• How do we lose peace?
  
  

• How is peace restored?
  
  

Key Point:  “Peace comes when we seek restoration”