II Kings 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me[a] and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,

The Hebrew word for peace used here is “b’rakah” which means “make a peace offering” – this offering would normally be made to God as an indication of gratitude for blessings, or as a free-will offering given spontaneously to God.

The king of Assyria wants the people of Jerusalem to give up the land promised to them by God, not only that but to treat the king of Assyria as if he is God, and in return, he promises them a life of ease – in another country, where they will continue to pay homage to him.

We can reflect on the history of the Jewish nation here, the years of slavery in Egypt, the long journey of a generation through the wilderness, till finally, they received the promises given them by God.

And for us today – what does this look like?

What has God promised us? Peace, strength, hope, faith, joy…..?

And what does our enemy today want us to trade-in for a life of comfort – exactly these aspects.

We can choose each day whether we want to satisfy the desires of our carnal nature or of our spiritual nature – which one do we feed, which one do we fight for, which one will we not compromise on?

My prayer for you today is that you learn daily to live by the spirit and that as a result your peace, hope, faith, joy, and love are growing daily as you dwell there.

Principle 34 – Choose each day to live by the Spirit.

Strengths – Discipline – you can ask yourself the best questions such as – How do you know you are achieving the right outcomes — and is your focus on routine, structure and process helping or hindering getting to the right outcomes?