I believe it is safe to say that we all want to live peaceful lives. But do we understand how to truly live at peace?
I dealt with a situation a couple years ago involving a love one that was very uncomfortable. It seemed like the more I wanted things to be peaceful the more hectic things became.
This very unfortunate situation went on for about 12 years of my life. Countless times I can remember saying "All I want is peace!". Yet peace was no where in sight. Change needed to happen and eventually I realized the needed change, was me.
This realization eventually came to me nine years into living through all the ups and downs I experienced with my love one. I gave my life to Christ in the midst of the series of unfortunate circumstances. The hard times I faced wasn't the reason I ultimately gave my life to Christ, but it was definitely one of many reasons why. I was just tired of so many things in my life. I was even tired of being tired. I would like to say that everything changed immediately after, but it didn't. About a year after accepting Christ, my pastor spoke about the difficulties we sometimes face with family and those closest to us. After the sermon, I really started to think about what I was going through and I began to realize I hadn't really prayed about it. So naturally I began to pray. Over the course of days that lead to months I prayed for my love one and I also prayed for myself. Through prayer and reading God's truths, I began to see the change that needed to happen had to start with me.
God revealed to me how prideful and downright disrespectful I had been the past couple years. He revealed multiple times I could have just walked away from an altercation but I refused which only caused the altercation to escalate and go on for longer than it should have. He showed me that I was the only one standing in the way of experiencing the freedom and peace I desired. Ouch! Seriously, ouch! Talk about having a piece of humble pie.
After He revealed that truth to me I had to swallowed my pride. I knew what needed to happen before I could experience peace and healing and it was going to take humility. I needed to repent to Him and I owed my love one an apology. I also needed to forgive myself and not wallow in all the wrong I had done. I simply needed to take the lessons I learned and grow from them.
I also realized God used that particular situation to get my attention. He needed me to see that I wasn't depending on Him at all like I should have been in multiple areas of my life. This experience taught me how to fully surrender to Him.
I would have never experienced the total amount of peace and healing that God desired for me if I didn't surrender to Him. I would have continued living in a vicious cycle of nothing but turmoil because of my own pride. Pride that made me think I could fix things on my own and in my own strength.
Philippians 4:6-7 teaches us "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. 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." All we have to do is pray and trust God and He will supply us with the peace we need day to day in all things and in all situations.
I've chosen to live in peace with the strength that God has given me. I'm grateful that my search is over and I know where to find my ultimate source of peace. Does that mean everything is great and I will never have troubles again? No. It doesn't. But it does mean that because of my dependency on Jesus even in the midst of chaos, I can have peace. Is that even possible? Yes it is, through Jesus.
Final Thoughts
The only way to experience ultimate peace in life is through the giver of life, the Prince of Peace. Jesus is only a simple prayer away. Accepting Him into your life doesn't mean life will be easy, it purely means that you will have peace no matter how difficult things may get.
I told a friend once that Jesus is my sweet peace. I told her that His peace to me is like a delicious dessert. I can go on and on telling you about how good the dessert is and how it is so worth it to try, but until you experience the dessert for yourself you simply won't understand. It is the same with Jesus. I can proclaim how great peace with Jesus is with all my heart, but you have to accept a relationship with Him so you can experience His sweet peace for yourself.
If you haven't already done so, will you surrender today? Will you surrender your uncomfortable situations, troubles, struggles, worries or fears? Will you trust Him and surrender your heart to Him? Will you seek to experience real peace through a relationships with Jesus? I pray you will.
Until next time, God bless you all