Devotional- Peace for Today-Glory & Grace

“The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in Thee. (Isaiah 26:3 )

The more people I meet in the hospital, the more I see the overwhelming unrest, anxiety, fears and tremendous amount of stress going on inside of people. Thank God Jesus has given us peace, so believers are exempt from this. Right?

In principle, yes, but that is not the experience of many believers in practice. Many are as anxious and fearful about what is going on in their lives and the world as much as unbelievers. Believers are expected to live in peace not because their circumstances or environments are different, but because God is watching jealously over them. Yes, Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you”. But the secret to experiencing that peace is to trust in the Lord. When we trust the Lord, we cast our burdens and the responsibility of fixing the things that are broken in our worlds into His hands. When we give it to Him, in faith, we cease to be concerned about it. Faith brings us into the rest of God while God takes charge. It is of utmost importance to learn to count on God entirely as children if we will ever know peace in the midst of the storms of our lives.

In fact, peace is evidence that we have truly trusted God. Worry is proof that our trust is not yet on God but on ourselves.

Let God be God.

MEDITATE

Roll the words of the verse above again and again in your mind. Let your mind be steadfast in His word. Think about what it means to have peace in that very situation you are in, and what it meant for you to really trust God.

Mutter those words to yourself aloud, that you are steadfast in your mind, and God is keeping you in perfect peace because you trust in Him.

Now do something about that verse. Put God’s word to work. Locate that anxiety-provoking situation in your life you are even dreading to face today. Determine in your heart to choose to trust God ( yes its a choice) rather than look to yourself on how to fix it. Discover for yourself that you will have peace, even without an apparent solution to the problem as you truly trust God. And whenever you “hold your peace”, the Lord will fight for you! Don’t just read this, do it and see that God’s word works.

PRAY

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to choose trust rather than worry today. Yes, it takes God’s ability and we have to rely on Him to do this.