peace

None of us want to stress and worry and be overwhelmed. We all want to be easy-breezy, it’s-gonna-all-work-out kind of people (and good for you if you are!) 🙂

But for the rest of us, our stress and general sense of being affected by the mess in and around us leaves us wishing for peace! It is so aggravating to live by the ebb and flow of emotions, hormones, other people, crises, health and sleep problems, and so much more that daily comes our way.

Here’s a reminder (to me!) of how we move from this point of stress to well-being, whenever we are willing to pause and renew our minds…

Morning by morning, and every moment in between, God is inviting us into a new peace – a laying down of the old and the flesh and the world, and a putting on of the new and the spirit and the realm where Jesus reigns above it all. 

One thing that holds me back from peace is forgetting I can do this “taking off and putting on” daily. I forget that I can make a great exchange of my fears and plans for the promises and commands of my loving, living God! 

Another thing that holds me back is that I tend to try to be peaceful by achieving my own goals or finding my own happiness in ways I can control. 

Trying to find peace in the ideal life, trying to live for a time that the kids, the finances, the body, the calling, the spouse, etc are all coming together beautifully is to set myself before a dead, lifeless idol that truly has no ability to do for me what I think it will! 

False gods give false peace. 

My floors being clean, my husband agreeing with me about a rule I want to make for the kids, how my sleep issues are going, or even how Haiti and Ethiopia are faring – when this is where I try to find my peace,  I become like these idols. I become like a wave on the sea, rolling up and down and sideways based on all that is pushing me and slamming me around! I become the unsteady and the desperate and even the victim.

But at the moment I see (again) that these things going well won’t fulfill my real longing, I am so thankful that it is never my goodness, or even things in the world being made right, that truly gives me peace. 

Instead, our peace is found in the work that Jesus did on the cross, in the grave, in the resurrection, and in the giving of His Spirit! My peace is found in turning to Him and His Word, continually. 

And when I behold Jesus, I behold unchanging strength, truth, and grace. I behold what He says really matters. I behold those eyes that look at waves without flinching. I gain His confidence because I know in Whom I have believed. And when I look to Jesus and His Word, I see Him burning off the chaff- the idols that were never adding to my peace and never could. 

Where are you trying to find your peace?

How would things really be better if you got your way in one of the areas that tend to be idols? 

Choosing Jesus as our peace settles the matter of who is master over our lives, and knowing who our master is—that’s the whole ballgame! Those who choose Jesus as Master are released from all other masters (!!!)…and that brings me peace this world could never give with a thousand affirmations, promises, and fulfilled hopes. Let’s live for just this one Master, brothers and sisters, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He calls us friends. He Himself is our Peace.

John 14-17 

Phil. 4:6-7

Eph. 1&2

Matt. 11:28