The Source of Peace

Sometimes it’s uncanny how quickly we can go from a smooth ride through life to a bumpy or freefall experience.  At one moment it is like you have all the dimensions of your existence in your grip and then the turn happens where you find yourself quickly on the other side – grasping for answers to why or what happened.  For me this position is familiar and of late there seem to be waves that continue to test.  I’d love to tell you that I’ve weathered through it all like a champ – keeping my eyes focused on God and treating others around me as they deserved rather than from my brokenness.

When the difficult times come, we tend to unravel.  It’s like the positive side of what we have going on just disappears when we’re faced with our particular mountain.  In our C12 Group materials this month, we’ve been challenged as part of looking forward to next year to spend some time looking back.  I’m going to pass this challenge along to you either as part of your strategic planning for 2027 or just as a good exercise for you to look back and remember all that God has done.  We often get so wrapped up in the “here and now” that we find ourselves with an amnesia about all the ways that God has worked in our lives in the past.  I am so easily distracted with misplaced worry or anxiety that it doesn’t occur to me to take an inventory of all the ways God has provided, carried, resolved and just taken very good care of me. 

He promises in His word to provide, and He even goes further to tell us how valuable we are – more valuable than the grass and the birds.  And one of our favorite passages in the bible tells us just where we rank – John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  The value that He places on us to be willing to give His Son for us puts a stake in the ground for how He really feels about us – this is our real value.  And when we know Jesus, we get peace – a peace that passes all understanding that we get to hold onto when the doubts and fears creep in or crash in. 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13

Credit: i-Stock