January 4
We all want peace, don’t we? I mean, really, all the beauty pageant finalists answer their questions with the desire for ‘world peace’. (That always cracks me up – it’s such a safe answer.) But really, our homes, our community, our state, our country, our world would be a much better place to live if there was peace.
What about ourselves, do we have inward peace? I remember a time when I was full of fear, afraid for my children, afraid for circumstances at work, afraid of just about everything. During that time something profound happened in just a short little phone conversation at work.
Now, the caller didn’t know that I was experiencing such fear, but she ended the conversation with ‘God’s peace be with you.’ That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought to myself, that’s it – I don’t have peace, that’s why I’m so fearful, so nervous, so edgy. I need peace amidst all of the circumstances surrounding me.
We all do, don’t we? Every time we turn on the TV we hear of shootings like the ones in Newtown, CT, robberies, the fiscal cliff, stock market declines. It is enough to make us fearful all the time. But I learned a truth from that phone call years ago.
I need to remember where peace comes from – it comes from God. I like to think on Scripture to help me internalize and live out my faith. I wanted to know how to daily experience God’s peace amidst all the sometimes overwhelming non-peaceful things coming my way.
This is the verse I landed on and cling to in these times, ‘You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.’ Isaiah 26 NIV I know that when I trust God – trust that He is in control, trust that He knows the beginning from the end, trust that He loves me –that He will keep me in perfect peace when the overwhelming circumstances and the bad news of the day come my way. I don’t just know it, I’ve experienced it.
God’s peace be with you.
Faithpondering 