Peace, Peace

    There is peace in the midst of the storm. Peace isn’t in knowing how it will all play out but in knowing without a doubt that He will come, that He already has come. Our anxiety rises to an all time high when we fear not so much that He won’t come but that He won’t come in the way we desire or think He should. But when we find that place of peace and calm in the eye of the storm it no longer matters how He comes but we realize that He already has and that He has in fact entered into the storm with us and provided a place of rest. That is why our hope and trust must be in Him not in how He will do something or what He will do. I know without a doubt He is my green pasture and my quiet waters but how many times have I failed to recognize this and thought my green pastures and quiet waters are the outcome of a situation going the way I want. Have you ever been there? There is only one place our soul can find rest and that is in Him alone.

          

Psalm 62:1-2 My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation 

 comes from Him, He only is my rock and my fortress.

I shall not be moved.

     I find it to be such a paradox that when I find this place (the place of rest and peace in who He is rather than what He does) I also find the faith that truly believes nothing is impossible with Him. This faith that is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen can not be present when there is any measure of anxiety inside of us, but when we come to this place of faith we are no longer fighting the fear of what if, because we are so at peace and rest in Him that the “what if” no longer matters.

 

     I see this picture of a girl following the Master up the steep mountain that He has promised leads to a wonderful place, a place that she has longed to go and asked for him to take her. But the only way to get there is by climbing up. At times filled with doubt that He even knows for sure where He is going, at other times filled with doubt that this could possibly lead to anywhere good. Can you relate? She asks the Master,” Are you sure this is the right path”? She not only questions the way they are going but the condition she will be in when they do finally get there after having to climb so high. “Do we really have to climb this steep mountain to get to this spacious, peaceful place I have heard so much about? Are you sure there isn’t another way?” And He confidently reassures her, “Yes my child I am sure, just trust me, it will be all that you imagined and more.”

 

     There are times in our lives when choosing to follow Him is going to lead down obscure paths and hidden ways, with plenty of opportunities for questions to go unanswered and things we just won’t understand. It won’t always be comfortable and often it won’t be the easy way, but it will most assuredly be the path that leads to the life in Him we long for and are searching for. That is why it requires faith because there are times that what we see in the natural will simply contradict the picture of the outcome He has promised to us and to which we are following Him. But He knows the desires of our hearts, the desires created by His dreams for us before we were ever born; and He alone is the only one who knows the path we must take for the fulfillment of them.

    As Bill Johnson says, “The cross is living between the revelation God has given of our purpose and are willing to lay down our lives for and the circumstances we find ourselves in that contradict what He has shown us.” To take up that cross requires faith indeed. No amount of understanding will ever suffice nor will He give it for then it wouldn’t be faith. That is why the peace Jesus gives is truly peace that passes all understanding.