Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We don’t live in a perfect world. Bad things happen to good people. People we love get sick, suffer, and die. We get sick, suffer, and die. Or maybe we don’t die, but instead suffer from chronic pain. Day in and day out the pain never goes away.
Sometimes, we can pray, believe, stay in faith, work, and try our hardest and things still won’t work out the way we want. So, you ask–where’s the peace? Jesus promises us peace, but he doesn’t promise a life without problems.
John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble but take heart! I have overcome the world.
Talk about stress. Since the beginning of the year my husband had a triple by-pass, then I developed Bell’s Palsy, and then they found bilateral brain tumors. Oh yeah, almost forgot I don’t actually have a job for next school year either.
But most days I’m smiling as best I can considering the Bell’s Palsy. Someone asked me how I do it and here’s what’s helped me.
Trust in God’s sovereignty.
God is the ruler of the universe. He is our king. He can and will do things that we won’t like or understand. His ways are not our ways but His ways are right and holy. We will never experience God’s peace until we submit to His sovereignty.
Trust in God’s love.
Once we accept that God is in control, then it’s time to trust in God’s love. If we know without a doubt that God loves us, then we should be able to have peace in the bad times because we know that God is in control and that He loves us. He promises that all things will work out for the good of those who love him.
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Choose peace.
The peace of God is one of His greatest and most loving gifts that He gives us and yet so many choose not to accept that gift.. We reject peace by choosing to complain, to worry, to be anxious and fret. We reject peace by focusing on the negative. We reject peace by gossiping and hurting others. The list can go on and on but the important thing to understand is that our actions contribute directly to how much peace we have.
God has a different viewpoint than we do. He sees and knows things that we don’t. It’s like being a window washer. A window washer on a skyscraper can see much more than those of us at ground level. The window washer can see why the ambulance just sped around you because of the accident down several blocks that you can’t see.
God is the ultimate window washer. He knows the past, the present and the future. He has a different vantage point than we do and he knows that we must experience certain things to grow and mature and that’s never easy.
I remember when my sister was twelve or thirteen and her legs would ache so badly that she would cry while my mother massaged them. It wasn’t easy for her but she grew a few more inches. She had to experience that pain to get the extra growth.
Believe me when I say that I would gladly have experienced that pain so that I could grow a few more inches. It’s not easy being 4’8” in a world of tall people. I didn’t have the growing pains but I didn’t have the growth spurt either.
Life is like that. We can’t grow spiritually without the growing pains.
So whatever you’re going through right now, know that God loves you.
Lillian Duncan
Stories of faith mingled with....murder & mayhemwww.lillianduncan.net
www.PowerUpWithGod.com
Stories of faith mingled with....murder & mayhemwww.lillianduncan.net
www.PowerUpWithGod.com
Check out this link Lillian's books to see what she's written.
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