As a young child, I expected my parents to fix all my problems. As I got older, I learned that was not a valid expectation. By the time I became a teenager, I fully understood that my problems were my own. Any peace that I found by taking my problems to them was only temporary. Years and years and years later, I found peace.
Have you found peace?
We say that God will take care of things in His timing and in His way. Have you fully accepted that?
Do you pray for God to have His way? Do you pray for God to give you your way? There are times I have been thankful I did not get what I wanted. I got something much better instead. Often I was saved from something much worse.
If you are looking for peace, you must first realize peace is a spiritual condition, not a circumstantial condition. Peace has to do with what you are feeling on the inside, not with what is happening around you. Although circumstances can certainly cause you to lose sight of peace, circumstances cannot bring you true peace – internal peace.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
Isaiah 26:3-4
Did you catch that? “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” Where is your mind? Is it on God, or is it on the things around you?
As much as Paul went through in His life, he wrote the following in Philippians.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
Since Paul wrote it, he obviously believed it. God had revealed to him that he could trust God for the strength to do what God wanted him to do, and for the needs that He would encounter along the way. Paul had experienced God’s provisions in his life.
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. If you want peace, you must believe God’s Word. You must believe God.
When you know you have trusted Jesus as your Savior, and when you have turned everything else over to God, it is then and only then that you will find peace not only with God for eternity, but from God in your temporal circumstances.
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2
Today’s challenge is to obtain peace. Obtain peace for where you will spend eternity by trusting Jesus as your Savior if you have not already. Obtain peace through your temporal circumstances by trusting God to see you through them. He will provide for your needs.