You give me peace……

Hi friends!

What a week its been! I came out of our annual church

conference! It was amazing!! It started on Wednesday and

finished yesterday. It has also been a busy week. It’s always

busy for everyone at this time. There is so much work to do.

So last week in my busyness I was asked a question that has

haunted me till now. This is what was asked,

 

“Why do you get stressed so easily?”

 

I was running around like a headless chicken prior to the

question being asked. After he left I couldn’t shake the

question. I tried to defend myself to myself and even

justify myself but he was right, I do get stressed easily.

Shucks!!

I want to be that person who stays calm when everything

is falling. I just want to be calm!

That got me thinking about peace……Can I be at peace when

everything is

going wrong? Can I be at peace when the mountains shake?

That is when God gave me a scripture that helped me that

I hope will help you!

 

Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give you and

bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither

let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated

and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful

and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

John 14:27

 

I was thinking about the peace the world gives versus the peace

Jesus gives. The peace the world gives focuses on the external.

No war means peace, living in harmony, avoiding confrontation is

seen as keeping the peace.

Then there is meditation, clear your minds they tell us.

So as you can see, the world’s peace is very different.

The main thing to keep in mind about the peace the world

offers is that it doesn’t have Jesus as it’s source and a peace

without Jesus at it’s core is not peace at all!

Without Jesus you will never have peace!

 

The peace that Jesus offers is inward focused. When everything

is collapsing around us, the peace Jesus gives us keeps us steady.

When it looks like the enemy is going to win His peace gives us

hope that things will turn around.

The peace Jesus gives us is dependant on Him!

When we know He is in control, we have peace!

 

So I was challenged to stop stressing so much. The word is

very clear, we must not allow our hearts to be troubled,

we must stop allowing ourselves to be agitated and disturbed,

We must not permit ourselves to be fearful, intimidated

and cowardly in the face of danger, pressure, and so on…..

It’s a decsion to be at peace!

 

This is not just about me having peace at work but this post

is about having peace in hard times. It’s about having peace

when there is so much fear in the world. When my friend asked

me that question I realized later on that, God wants me to walk

in peace, period! Being agitated, stressed and anxious is not from

Him. As I end I would like to share one more story with you from

the word.

 

“And when Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord,

Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the Angel

of the Lord face to face!

The Lord said to him, peace be to you, do not fear;

you shall not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it,

The Lord is Peace.

To this day it still stands in Ophrah, which belongs to the

Abiezrites.

Judges 6:22-24

 

Gideon’s fear was real. He thought he would die because he

saw the face of God but God told him not to fear. I think

something more happened when those words were spoken.

I think Gideon saw or felt something, something that had

to be told to the generations to come! What ever he saw or felt

compelled him to build an altar and name it, The Lord is Peace

(Jehovah Shalom)!!!

I want to walk in that peace everyday, the peace Jesus gives!!

 

Whatever trouble you are going through remember,

to not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,

stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do

not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated, cowardly

and unsettled!

He is our Peace! Things may be falling apart around us but

we are at peace because He is with us holding us up!

Amen….

 

Rolain