QUIET TIME REFLECTIONS
Week of August 5, 2019
by
Pam Crawford pmcrawford1@gmail.com
Dressed for Stress
Lately the conversations all around me are consistent with
one common thread – STRESS! With so much to do and so little time to do it, the
result is often a lack of peace. Instead, there are sleepless nights and
ineffective days. Whining replaces intelligent dialogue. Hyperactivity
overrides quiet and panicking rules over calm. Before you know it, calamity
[disaster] is knocking at your door. Is this really how we should be utilizing
our most precious commodity, the time given to us on this earth?
As someone who has lived way too many days under the
pressure of stress, I believe it’s time to sit with the example of peace. To
have peace, you would do well to understand peace. I think if we’re honest everyone wants the
gift of peace [the absence of unrest] but very few experience it because there
is a missing component. For lasting peace it is necessary to discover the
Prince of Peace. Peace actually begins at the point of connection to the author
of peace.
These days I often sit with the words that Jesus spoke to
His disciples before His departure of this world. At the time they didn’t
realize what a gift He was sharing with them. Although His physical presence
would be gone, His peace would remain. When you understand that peace is not
merely a result of something, but rather it is Something, the picture becomes
much clearer.
“Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not
let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27
Each day we live we are given the gift of choice
[free-will]. We will either accept stress as a way of life, or we can decide to
kick it to the curb and replace it with a lasting peace. In order to kick it to the curb we will have
to remove some obstacles that get in the way daily. Learning to say no in order to say yes is a great starting point. Too many of us are involved in
things that just do not need to be in our lives. We often complain that we
don’t have time for doing the things that we want to do, or that which we know
would be pleasing to God and sadly that is often true. But I have to ask. Why
is that? What is in the way? What might you be able to set aside or adjust in
your life that would enable you to spend more time in the presence of God? From
experience I have found that true peace comes no other way.
“The Prince of Peace
is a gift to people who lack peace.” – Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Life’s Application
Commentary: The end result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep
and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the
absence of conflict, this peace is the confident assurance in any circumstance;
with Christ’s peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. If your
life is full of stress, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with Christ’s peace.
Jesus says he will give us that peace if we’re willing to accept it from Him.
“Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.” –Philippians 4:6-7
“I want to remind us that Jesus had peace not because He
didn’t have any problems. His peace was not the result of medicating His pain.
His peace was because of His relationship with His Heavenly Father. He trusted
the sovereign plan and will of God. He knew that everything was all under God’s
control, the waves, the winds, the hungry people, the food, the Pharisees, the
crowds. He knew that God was in charge. He was on His throne. He knew that no
one could do anything to Him apart from the Father’s permission and divine
will. That’s why He could stay calm because He knew that Someone was in
control, and that Someone was His Heavenly Father. The first and greatest need
in our lives is to have peace with God. We were created to have fellowship with
God. But you know how sin broke that fellowship, and we were born estranged
from a holy God, at enmity with Him. Ultimately, at the heart of all our lack
of peace, is that God had to withdraw His presence from us, due to our sin and
the fact that a holy God cannot look on sin. It’s our guilt, ultimately, in
this human world that causes this lack of peace. But wonder of wonders, through
his death on the cross in our place, Jesus reconciled us to God. He opened the
way for us to enter the presence of God, to be friends with God.
How do you have peace of God? You get it through your
relationship with Jesus. Right? And remember that peace is not the absence of
problems. You think, Oh, if this problem
would go away…If this person would go away…You know I could just be a
really peaceful person if I could go live in the uninhabited regions of the
world. No people, I’d have a lot of peace.
You know, you can have peace right where you live, in your
home, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, with that neighbor, with that
problem person, with that child that is so far from the Lord. You can have
peace.
Peace is not the absence of
problems, peace is the presence of Christ in the midst of the problems – Prince
of Peace.
But here is the point. You can’t have the peace of God in
your heart, if the Prince of Peace isn’t ruling in your life. We live in a
fallen broken world. You know that’s the case. There will always be trials and
disappointments and pain and sorrows. Until we see Jesus face to face, we’re
going to have to deal with those things. But in the midst of all of that, there
is no circumstance where our hearts cannot be at peace and at rest if we are
rightly related to the Prince of Peace.
That peace is not based on emotions; it’s not based on feelings; it’s
not determined by external circumstances. It’s a gift that He gives as we trust
Him in the midst of turmoil going on around us.”
–
Excerpt from The Wonder of His Name [Prince of Peace] by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.
As you seek peace over stress, consider letting God’s peace
guard your heart in every area of your life. This will mean making some necessary
adjustments in your world in order to open up time to sit with Jesus. He has
much to teach. He can empower you to hear and obey. What I can tell you for sure is that when you
surrender to this, it’s the beginning of some amazing days! Choose peace.
In Christ by grace,
Pam
For more on the Prince of Peace:
©2014
Getting The Word Out. Used by Permission.
