John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Experiencing peace in every situation of life does not mean the absence of any conflict. A person can be in the midst of a great trial and still feel at peace. The key to experiencing this kind of serenity, is in knowing for certain that God is in control of every second of your life.
When we realize that long before we were created and born on the earth, the Lord already knew all about us. He saw every one of our days, and He was aware of all the difficulties we would face. He planned for us, a solution to each stress and anxiety, whereby we would come out better after the trial than we were when we went into it.
When we sincerely believe that God is for us and that He always has our best interest at heart, then we should be filled with constant peace as we realize that everything is going to be okay. The very nature of God is love, grace, mercy, compassion, and kindness. It is not possible for God to do anything that is evil, malicious or harmful to us. In fact, when we were in the way of the greatest harm, death itself, God sent His only Son to block the way so that we could not pass through eternal death and judgment for our sins.
Everything that we come to and go through in our life has been filtered through the Lord’s loving care so that we benefit from it by the greatest possible way. The Lord is more interested in the development of our character than He is in developing an atmosphere of comfort for us. When we need to be hurt a little so that our character can be developed, the Lord may allow us to feel the sting of pain and suffering. When we are already in the midst of pain and suffering, He comes to us to comfort and to heal us.
He may allow us to lack a few things for awhile. He may cause us to wait for something that we think we desperately need. Even when He is moving in our life to provide the things we have prayed and have asked Him for, He may make the entrance of these things slower and more difficult than we would have liked or imagined.
As we place more and more years behind us and develop a record of His faithfulness to us in all things, when we arrive at the next new challenge, we remember just how good and faithful the Lord has been to us in the past. If He has always been good to us in the past, it is for certain that He will continue to be faithful and good to us today and in the future.
As we walk with Jesus today, we remember that our God loves us. That He is always faithful and good to us. When nothing makes sense in the present, we look forward to the time when everything will become clear. It is when we arrive at that future destination that we will be able to look back and see that the Lord was always there and that every step we took was ordered and planned by Him.
This knowledge should allow us to experience peace even in the midst of a terrible trial or difficulty. The Bible promises that when we trust the Lord in these difficult times, that He will give to us a “Peace that passes understanding.” Although we should be stressed out and at our wits end, instead we feel an inner calm and have an assurance that everything is going to turn out just fine.
Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Rob Robinson
