Just a Little Peace, Please?

Recently I was up early one morning and instantly a host of random thoughts were running through my mind. I sat at my kitchen table sipping my homemade latte in the darkness just before dawn, I found my anxiety quickly rising.

We were headed overseas soon for a mission trip, something we love doing, where we would meet much of the time with pastors and spouses. They would be free to share their joys, hurts and questions and perhaps get a little hope and direction from someone who’d faced at least some of their same challenges.

However, the leader of the trip and I were texting some details back and forth and I found myself wondering if it all was going to come together.

Nonetheless, my recent morning times included some quiet moments, reading my Bible, thinking and praying. I was also using a devotional on Mondays through Fridays that gave me some helpful starting points on what to read, all focused on a particular topic for the week.

Guess what the topic was and would be for the next four days? Peace. Yep, exactly what I needed and continued to need then and now. Maybe you do too.

In today’s fast-paced, chaotic world, peace and quiet can be harder and harder to find. If you have kids or grandkids, their schedules alone can be overwhelming. Maybe work or home responsibilities add to the rat race. Ongoing family and personal issues can add to the drama and angst.

And those things don’t include what’s going on in the neighborhood, community, country or world. Some of you are old enough to remember the beauty pageants where at least one final contestant responded to the question, “What do you hope to help accomplish if you win the title?” with “I want to help bring world peace.” Yeah, right.

Part of the good news is that Jesus was termed among many things the “Prince of Peace.” “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) And the words for peace used in the Bible don’t merely refer to the lack of conflict, busyness or difficulty. They also imply something deeper like wholeness or completion.

For us, that means that while we can with God’s strength overcome our daily, ongoing challenges, our inward desires and longings, like mattering, being valued and having a heavenly, eternal future are our ultimate hope.

In fact, it’s that larger definition that helps us face the “little,” though they seem big, things like I was worrying about that morning.

A colloquial phrase we might use for Jesus being our peace is, “You’ve got this.” It helps me at times to pray in the middle of my seeming chaos, “Lord, I know you’ve got this. I trust you even in the unknowns and mountains of today, this week, this year, this season.

So maybe also consider, even repeat out loud at times, Jesus’ often-used encouragement after he did something amazing in someone’s life. He said, “Go in peace.” Or you could just listen a minute and hear Him saying, “I’ve got this.” He does.

copied with from permission ~ Gary Sinclair