Do you sometimes feel a bit untethered? Wandering off into the wilderness and you’ve forgotten the way back to the trail? Or maybe you are scrambling over the boulders of fear, anxiety and hopelessness. It wouldn’t be surprising given what’s been thrown at us in 2020. But God is the Prince of Peace. That doesn’t mean He’s the “prince of no conflict and no tribulations.” It means when we are in closer communion with Him, we experience the fruits of His spirit – kindness, joy, love, patience, goodness, faithfulness and yes, peace. This is His promise.
Join me starting December 7 as we explore just 25 of the 1,000s of God’s promises found in His Holy Word. Promises to hold on to for hope and for peace.
Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
Mark 5:36-42
I’m writing this post on the United States’ election day. When you read it, you’ll know much more about who may be the next U.S. president. There’s a lot of anxiety and fear swirling around the world right now because of this election. Unfortunately, so much of it is based on misinformation or downright disinformation. And a lot of it is designed to create fear and distrust. What’s so different for me this presidential election is the peace I have, which is solely due to my trust in God. I am not afraid; I just believe.
In Mark’s retelling of Jesus bringing this young girl back to life he starts out with her father, a leader in the synagogue, coming to a large gathering around Jesus. He urgently pleaded with Jesus to come and heal his sick daughter. He believed that just by touching his daughter, Jesus will heal her. As Jesus walks through the crowds towards the man’s house a woman, who had been bleeding for 12 years, reached out and touched Jesus’ clothes. She thought:
“If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
Mark 5:27
Jesus knew at once that someone had put their faith in him. He turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30) Of course, a lot of people had probably touched him because they were all crowding around Him. We so often want to be “fans” of Jesus, His groupies. But how often do we turn to Him in complete and total surrender and ask for His healing power, His peace? How often do we put limits on His ability to “make all things work together for our good?” (Romans 8:28). In fact, the simple act of turning to the crowd, searching for the woman who touched Him, caused the disciples and friends of the girl’s father to be almost annoyed. He was taking time away from what he “should” have been doing which was healing the girl. In other words, we think Jesus as all knowing, all powerful and yet in the same breath assume he can’t do all things.
We should not be so astonished, so amazed that Jesus can, by just being, heal us. We should not be so astonished that He also chooses to take action in His time. If we believe and have faith in the truths of the Bible, we must expect that, if Jesus can raise a little girl from the dead, if he can raise Lazarus from being many days dead, then He can handle anything else this world throws at Him.
This knowledge and trust is what has brought me through, not only this election season, but through the unrest brought on by Covid19. Each time I try and take back my fears and worries I am reminded in my Bible studies and through my amazing Christian relationships that peace can only be fully achieved by placing those fears back in God’s hands. A good friend has been completely transformed this year through this same process. My BSGs (Bible Study Girls) were reflecting today about how few times this friend speaks of “her anxiety” — which she used to wear like a favorite coat. Imagine that – with all the mess that is 2020 her anxiety has all but disappeared. Pretty amazing. Those trials and tribulations that James writes of have been hammered home this year.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
James 1:2-3
Have you taken these “opportunities” of trials to grow in your faith? To grow closer to God? To grasp the promise of Jesus’s peace? Another of my BSGs, who in a difficult trial, begged for God’s help and felt that peace descend over her. She described it as a weighted blanket – warm and calming. Isn’t that more of what we want rather than living in constant disarray, discombobulation and wailing?
So, as I wait for the results of this important election, I use each time my mind wants to lean into worry to instead lean into Jesus’ words – “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” And His amazing peace never fails to come over me.
The Lord bless me and keep me; the Lord makes his face shine on me and is gracious to me; the Lord turns His face toward me and gives me PEACE.
Life is like a stormy sea That tosses to and fro, But God’s Word will ever be A ballast for my soul; By its truth I’ll be held fast Till I reach heaven’s shore Where I will be home at last And sail life’s sea no more!
—Perry Boardman
How often do you feel like a sailing ship being tossed to and fro? Or a tiny dinghy out on a stormy lake? I certainly felt that way more times than I can count. My “peace-filled” days were the ones I could count on a couple hands. But Jesus is the Prince of Peace! It’s so fascinating to study the days of Jesus and His interactions with the leaders of the Jewish faith. We have the benefit of thousands of years of scholarly study to correctly interpret Jesus’ words. We also have the truth of the resurrection to back up Jesus’ position with God.
But think of those leaders who knew the prophesy in Isaiah 9:6 which states: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” They certainly weren’t anxiously waiting for this Nazarene. A child born to a lowly woman. Someone not officially holding a title of Prince or even Rabbi. And yet there he stood.
“Shalom – peace – is a precious word to the Jewish people. It means more than just the absence of war or distress. Shalom means wholeness, completeness, health, security, even prosperity in the best sense. When you are enjoying God’s peace, there is joy and contentment,” says Warren Wiersbe on his commentary of John 14:25-31. The Pharisees, and other lay people, were looking for someone to just give them the absence of war and the gift of prosperity. They were missing out on the eternal peace that God gifts us through both war and prosperity. When I think of God’s peace the eye of a hurricane always comes to mind. This eye is an area of mostly calm weather inside a terrifying hurricane.
According to the website, A Catholic Gentleman, which promotes faith in men, “over 40 million Americans suffer from an anxiety disorder of some kind, and there are no doubt countless others that live with severe anxiety but are undiagnosed. “ But how do we obtain this elusive peace? The Catholic Gentleman gives some great insight:
First, it means living in the present moment. A great deal of anxiety comes from worrying about the past or the future, neither of which can be changed. Even though we know it is useless, we often expend untold emotional energy worrying.
Second, it means accepting the circumstances of life without impatient resistance, realizing that everything is either positively willed or at least allowed by God.
Finally, it means trust in the goodness of God. Many of us are afraid to completely abandon ourselves to the will of God because we are afraid of what it might mean.
These three pieces of advice are so clear and helpful. But they are not easy. I once told a good friend that some days just working on staying in the present moment took every ounce of energy I had. There are no quick fixes to this amazing gift God wants for us. Unlike grace and salvation which, once we accept Jesus as the son of God who removes our stains, is given fully and freely to us, the gift of peace can seem more like trying to open a clamshell style package. You think it looks simple and you try poking your fingernail between the two pieces of plastic. When that doesn’t work you look for a helpful tab somewhere the manufacturer must have added in order to tear that puppy open. But alas, none exists. Then you start trying to use brute strength or maybe your teeth. You feel a bit silly. I mean it’s you against a piece of plastic! You finally give in and get out a knife or scissors. And even that may lead to a bloody finger. When all is said and done you have in front of you a mangled piece of plastic and the object of your desire, freed from the bonds of the clamshell. You look at your freed item and somehow it feels more valuable from the work you just put in. And you exclaim, “finally!”
I love the teachings of Joyce Meyer primarily because this taming of our minds is her primary teaching focus when it comes to following God’s Word. One of her devotional days says,
“Nobody is successful with any venture just by wishing they would be. Successful people make a plan and talk to themselves about that plan constantly.”
Joyce Meyer, Trusting God Day by Day
This is based on 2 Cor 10:5: “We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey God.” When we keep our mind in the present and decide what goes on up in our thick skull we are miles ahead toward achieving that gift of peace.
I know a lot people who spend most of their time on the wall of the hurricane instead of the eye. They’re the “Chicken Littles” and the “Debbie Downers” and the “Joy Suckers.” I’m familiar with all of them as I perfected each of them at one time or another. Until I accepted Jesus. I surrendered to trusting the goodness of God. When I am facing tough situations I FIRST turn to God to pump a little extra peace into me. For a long time, I assumed that long-time Christians all had this peace. One friend I spoke to at the beginning of the COVID 19 scare, who has been a Christian much longer than I, was distraught. He said he just couldn’t see God at work anywhere. I told him he sounded like the ship being tossed to and fro. And that without trust in God he wouldn’t find peace. He stopped talking. He realized he had stepped out of God’s eye and into the storm.
I read this story as part of a sermon by Max Lucado on “Peace that defies pain.”
“I have everything I need for joy!” Robert Reed said. “Amazing!” I thought.
His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. His shirts are held together by strips of Velcro®. His speech drags like a worn-out audio cassette.
Robert has cerebral palsy.
The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, from which he graduated with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at a St. Louis junior college or from venturing overseas on five mission trips.
And Robert’s disease didn’t prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal. He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language.
Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ. Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa.
I heard Robert speak recently. I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watched his stiff fingers force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of admiration from their faces. Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand up in the air and boasted, “I have everything I need for joy.”
His shirts are held together by Velcro®, but his life is held together by joy.”
I praise God, the Prince of Peace, the Giver of Joy, the Giver of Shaloha, as many on the beautifully peaceful island of Kauai like to say. I thank Him for helping me be steadfast in surrendering to Him so that I might live each moment in the eye rather than the walls of the storm.
emboldened.net 