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
photo credit: google images
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