Timothy, you are like a dear child to me. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Christ Jesus will be kind and merciful to you and will bless you with peace!
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
I saw a post on Facebook that said: “PEACE... it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.” I couldn’t help but think that this is the kind of peace that the Apostle Paul was talking about… a peace so complete in Jesus Christ that we barely notice the “noise, trouble or hard work.” But there are a lot of us who do not enjoy such peace. It’s not that we can’t… or that complete peace in Jesus is not available to us. The problem is that too many of us either enjoy our worries and troubles a little too much… or we have just become numb to them. Either way, we have not surrendered them to God, so we find ourselves uncomfortable… unsettled… and frequently operating in anything but true serenity.
Don’t you want to change this? Don’t you want to be different… to conquer the devil’s power over you – and this IS the devil’s work, not God’s! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to look at whatever challenges you face and say, “Yes…I see this happening, but I’m not going to fall apart at the seams – or even stress out over it,” or “I am fully aware that things are chaotic right now, but I will not allow this to define or dishearten me.” Aren’t you ready to operate in a constant state of complete peace and the confidence that God has your back?
How do we make this shift? How do we go from being caught up in the chaos to operating in the complete peace of Jesus? We start by recognizing His power… by saying over and over that “God’s got this!” We recite scriptures like Philippians 4:13…” For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”(NLT), Romans 8:31… What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us?” or even Psalm 23:1…” The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.” We repeat these scriptures silently – or aloud if necessary – until they take hold in our spirit and we feel calm and peaceful. And then we linger there in that spot. The more you do this… the more you trust God and truly hand Him your worries, cares, confusion and commotion…the more you will feel His peace.
There are two things to remember…
- God wants us to operate completely in His peace. This is His deep desire for each one of us.
- God’s complete peace is attainable… we can experience it and make it part of our everyday living.
All we have to do is to reach out to God… to call on Him to give us peace – and to surrender our cares to Him in all circumstances. As the quote explains, the noise, trouble and hard work may still be there… but with complete peace in Jesus, we’ll hardly notice.
©2013 Debbie Robus
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