Have you ever lost a loved one to death and felt that deep feeling of pain and loss that was almost unbearable? Then when you went to the viewing, you didn't think you'd have the strength to face all of those people during one of your darkest times. You breathe a simple, silent prayer, "God please help me" and you walk into to the funeral home. At the moment when you feel like you may run out of the room sobbing, you are immediately filled with a peace that you can't understand. It floods your entire being and you are able to face the people and the situation that you were previously dreading.
I have experienced it and it is mind-boggling. The peace doesn't make sense because you are in the middle of an emotionally challenging period of life. It's almost like the times when you have held your breath for a bit too long under water and you rush to the surface and gasp for that first breath of air. It feels so good to reinflate your lungs and relief immediately floods your veins.
Those moments of peace and relief came from somewhere. More accurately, they came from someONE. Today, my meditation was on another name of God, Jehovah-shalom, which means, "the God of peace."
Phillipians 4:6-7
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Often times when we think of having peace, we equate that to the end of our struggles. We have times of war and times of peace. We have times of need and times of abundance. Times of peace with no struggles is nice, but short-lived. It is rare that you will come across a person who isn't struggling with something at all at that time in their life.
God's peace is different. You don't have to wait until the problem is resolved in order to feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you have finished grieving before you can feel His peace. You don't have to wait until you are safely through the trials of life before you can feel His peace. God's peace is not limited to our situations.
That is what makes God's peace different. You can be right smack dab in the middle of one of the hardest things you've ever faced and feel peace.....peace IN THE MIDDLE of the storm. There is a strength that comes along with God's peace that helps you to get through the tough times.
So how can we get this peace (I mean, really....after a sales pitch like that, who wouldn't want it, right)?
The scripture above tells us that instead of worrying we should pray and tell God what we need. Then of course, we must thank God for what He has already done. He will supply the peace that you need and it will totally blow your mind. You won't be able to understand it. Not only that, but He will then proceed to protect your heart and mind.
That is quite the package, if you ask me. God's peace is one of the many blessings that comes from living in Christ Jesus. I have been so thankful for those times when God gave me peace in the middle of my struggle. I have experienced the peace of God during seasons of loss, public harassment and humiliation, betrayal, and even times when I had to face fears. I'm so glad that I don't have to wait for peace to come after the bad stuff is over with. We all have an endless supply of peace ready and available at a moment's notice. And we know Jehovah-shalom, the ONE who gives the peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment