In A Battle

From Lysa Terkeurst

"Make no mistake — we are in a battle. A daily one. Darkness is trying with all its might to overcome the light. Satan will even go so far as to disguise himself as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Thankfully, knowledge is power. If we can recognize Satan for who he is when he tries to show up in our lives as light, then we can call him out on it and reach for the true light of Jesus.

So, how do we tell the difference? If something looks like light, how can we know if it is really light or if it is counterfeit light? 

To tell if something is truly the light, we must hold it up to the light of God’s Word. 

We must keep testing our decisions against Scripture. Our world tells us that we don’t need God’s Word, that the Bible is out of date. It’s certainly not popular. So, the tendency is to let it fall by the wayside and simply go with what we feel is right. Any time we feel it may be easier to go it on our own and not bring a decision back to God’s Word, we must recognize that thinking for what it is — a lie from Satan. 

The Word of God is our handbook for living. Let’s keep it close and use it as a light unto our path every day."  

This is so true, and to her admonition to "test our decisions against Scripture", I would add, our thoughts, attitudes, actions and reactions as well.  

We're to have the mind of Christ, and to reflect Him and His great grace in our lives. And that doesn't always look like some would think. It doesn't always have "all the feels" that as an emotional creature I would be more comfortable with. Jesus' actions didn't always set right with the religious crowd, because it ran counter to their way of doing things, their goals and agendas, and threatened their positions. He often called them out on their hypocrisy. Even the disciples were often confounded as He corrected and taught them. Remember Jesus saying to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan!"? 

         "Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view and not from God's."  Matthew 16:23

In the moment, Peter's emotions were running high, and they were blurring his perspective and understanding. He actually rebuked Jesus, questioning His plan! Been there??

Part of the personal battle is to not allow satan to have victory in the hurts, disappointments and failures of my life. It's so easy to throw stones, to place blame, to pass judgment, to begin comparing my situation with another's, to defend and justify my own actions and reactions, all in an effort to lessen or avoid pain, change, or the undesired and sometimes unavoidable realities of life altogether. This too must be brought back to the Light of Scripture so that the true condition of our hearts can be revealed.

If satan can gain the upper hand, keeping us from seeing and acknowledging our true heart condition, he has succeeded in moving us a step away from Jesus. Without even being aware of what's happening, our priorities change, intimacy with Him is lost, and He is no longer first place in our lives, we are. We are going our own way, having what we believe is still a right relationship with Him.  But it's really one that suits our own terms and conditions and placates our emotions. It's not the oneness with Christ we should have. And it's not the Lordship in our lives He should have. 

Everything that comes into our lives, everything He allows to happen, we have to be able to accept and embrace with faith and grace and humility as from His hand. This is hard, and definitely a battleground for the mind and emotions. 

"Make no mistake---we are in a battle". The "counterfeit light" might try to make us believe that the enemy is our situation, if it would just change; other people, if they would just meet our expectations; or even other believers! (we're all perfect though, right? so how could that be!) But again, the enemy is satan, waiting to devour us as we wallow in our wrong attitudes, our negativity, our unkind, selfish thoughts, or discontentment with what life is handing us right now.  The Light of Scripture shows us the way back, reveals the deception of the "counterfeit light", and keeps us close to the Savior, right where we need to be. 

Shipwreck

I was reading in Acts 27 this morning of the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck experience. My breath halted when I realized I was saying to myself, “Yes, this ship is definitely sinking.”  The parallel…. of situations and struggles currently running rampant in my life right now... to a sinking ship in a storm, was too close. 

Your emotions can get so raw, your thoughts so scattered and tired, and it just feels like you’re going down.  

I won’t elaborate.  I don’t need to. The details don’t matter nearly as much as the Truth we both need in those times. And when it’s how I FEEL vs what I KNOW, His Truth is what I need to know.  His Truth will carry me through. It will carry you through too.  

God revealed to Paul that the ship was going to sink.  But He also told him that if everyone just stayed on board and did not try to abandon ship they would ALL survive. They all reached the island shore safely. Please take time to read this amazing account.   

The natural tendency and easiest thing to consider when life gets too much is to “abandon ship”; find a way to avoid the inevitable, escape the pain somehow.  Trusting God for the way of escape, which may mean seeing the ship go down so to speak, and just grabbing hold and hanging onto His promises, is not so appealing and doesn’t always make sense.  God told Paul in this instance it was exactly what everyone needed to do. But how do we do that exactly when life’s blows hit us hard and heavy? When decisions are weighty and we don’t know which way to turn?  

The promises of God are so very real, they are trustworthy and strong, timely and relevant.  We have to determine to hold onto them, believing that God’s way is what He will honor and is what we most need.  He could take our circumstances and certainly could intervene in so many ways. But there are so many lessons to be learned in it all.  Christ wants our full attention and obedience to His word and ways. There is always more of Christ to know and love, and our hearts and hurts need to heal.  

        “So take courage!  For I believe God. It will be just as He said.”  Acts 27:25

Do you grasp the power in those words?!  Paul was able to say, with a literal shipwreck looming, I BELIEVE GOD!  IT WILL BE JUST AS HE SAID. Those that could swim were told to jump and swim when the ship started to break apart.  Application? There may be something He equips you to DO that will make a difference. It will direct you, help you, heal you.  Do you pray? That’s certainly something we can all DO. Others that could not swim were told to find a fragment and hang on. They would float to safety. Application?  Resting in His Divine providence for us, staying in His Word, waiting for His healing work in us, will bring safety and assurance. He will carry us to the place we need to be.  

Sometimes it is pretty evident that a shipwreck is looming in a life that will change it forever --a sudden death, a terminal diagnosis, a struggling addicted child, a job loss or financial disaster, false accusations or work-place bullying, a declaration of divorce.  Do I blame God? Do I abandon God? Or do I believe God, that His good purposes in me can and will be accomplished (Philippians 1:6)?

No, we do not always escape suffering and loss. But help and healing for our hurting hearts is where God’s unfailing love is so evidenced. I have found myself at times, sitting in my front room in the quiet, with just the glow of soft light, letting Him love on me.  I can’t say anything. But I listen, and wait. Sometimes in tears, sometimes numb, His word begins to come into my thoughts, it rises up in my heart and memory, these promises and Truths I have read and cherished...and I let them wash over me.  

Let this fill you with peace and comfort and enabling grace today.  Jesus has you. We have His words to cling to. They are profound and powerful; life-saving, life-changing, soul-settling.  They are the way of escape from the torment of all the turbulence of life’s storms.  

Pray with me...Oh God, it’s time for You once again to stretch my faith, increase my confidence in Your word, strengthen my resolve to praise You in my storm, and keep me ever leaning into Your grace!  Jesus, if all is lost, You are enough. Your unfailing love is overwhelmingly enough. Your word is life and light. Your joy is unspeakable. Your presence with me is peace.   

The ship may be sinking, but there is a quiet calm shore just on the other side of this storm.  

And Jesus is already there.  

Promises for the New Year

As my faith journey takes me into another year there are some thoughts that encourage and comfort me, and I don’t know about you but I need that.  This past year was not the kindest, but it held all God allowed and His grace was sufficient to carry us through to this point. At different times yesterday as I sat down with my Bible and various devotional books, these truths spoke volumes to me.  As I move into all the tomorrows God will give this new year, I cling to them.  

“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”  1 Samuel 7:12  

What a wonderful verse to end and begin the year!  The NLT says, “Samuel then took a large stone...and named it Ebenezer (which means ‘the stone of help’), for he said, ‘Up to this point the Lord has helped us!’”  He literally found a large stone and placed it in a specific location as a visible reminder that the Lord had brought them by His help to this point. I love that old KJV word “Hitherto”.  The entirety of the past is held in that one word. I can look back over this past year in its “unkindness” and yes, see the hardship, the hurt, the loss and grief. But I also see a great and good God, faithful in every way, having guided, protected, provided and answered both personal prayers and prayers for others.  I think especially of a friend that saw her Dad come to know Jesus at age 92 just hours before he died. God honored and answered prayers and broke the strongholds that had hardened his heart toward God. What a glorious work of grace! I have no reason to doubt that God’s grace and mercy will follow me into this new year because He is unchanging.  He will continue to be faithful to Himself and His Word, and that means I can count on His faithfulness and unfailing love to me. I will continue to have His help, not because of who I am but because of who He is.  

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

It was as if the Lord shouted when I read this, “Pay attention!! You need to be looking 

forward with excitement and anticipation...and faith! Because I am doing something new. And it’s going to be like a way being made in the wilderness, where there seems to be no way; or like a river of life-giving water would be to a desert.  Look back, but only to be reminded of His faithfulness to this point, not to lament and labor over things that can’t be changed now. They’re in the past. I want to be greeting each day with a keen perception of God’s presence and what He may be doing in my life at any given moment.  This year will bring change, some unexpected and even unwanted, just like last year. But not without the blessed hand of God in it all! So I will take courage and rejoice in that, and look forward to all this year holds, not dread it or fear it. It is no doubt we will experience disappointment, but God never disappoints when I choose to see things through His eyes.

“And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know His voice." John 10:4

The Psalms tell us that “we are his people and the sheep of His pasture" (100:3). We follow a Great Shepherd that leads us with care and compassion.  But in this particular verse I am comforted to know that as I move into this new year, He has already gone before me! I am not being thrust into the great unknown without a careful and compassionate Guide!  There is uncertainty for sure. Life can change and change drastically in a moment. And some change is inevitable. But He is leading. I will follow. And again...I will keep saying it!!! He is great, and good, and faithful.  

I have had His help to this point, I will have it as I move forward.  He is doing something new and I will see it as good or trust Him to bring good from it because He is great and good.  And, I can know that whatever it is I will face, He has already gone before me, and I can embrace it by His grace with courage and confidence because He is faithful.  

Find your “Ebenezer” today, and Happy New Year!  

A Different Kind of Christmas

It's been a different kind of Christmas this year.  

We moved away from the hectic pace of overwhelming Christmas activities, and the frantic race to get “everything” done some years ago. I have enjoyed so much just soaking in the sights and sounds of the season without all of the crazy, just treasuring up memories and experiences with family and friends, sitting in front of a simple tree with a special Christmas mug full of coffee, and adoring my Savior for His immeasurable Gift. 

But "the Christmas Quiet" went to a whole new level this year. I was surrounded by the quiet hum of hospital sounds, with Roger's mom, part of where her ongoing care has brought us these recent years. I found myself longing for a bit of "crazy". It was as if Christmas was slowly passing me by and I was missing it! No baking. No shopping. No gatherings. Not just less, but none! It was a little eerie. And irritating. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve!

As the very long day and even longer night wore on, all I could do was think of being separated from my husband for Christmas; not being able to see my own mom spending this first Christmas in her grief without my Daddy; not baking and cooking, and entering into the happy Christmas banter and antics of the grandkids; enjoying a ride in the neighborhood to see the lights, missing the beautiful and moving Christmas Eve candlelight service. No, just silence, and that hospital hum.  

But oh the wonder of holy hush, when Jesus slips into the quiet places of the yearning heart and meets the need, even in a dark, moon-lit hospital room. A devotion from earlier in the week surfaced in my thoughts. 

            "Let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, 

      but to Himself. And when He plunges us 

      into the night of pure faith, let us still press

      on through the agonizing darkness." 

                 Herbert Booth, Streams in the Desert

As the night crept toward morning I rejoiced that His gifts are many, beginning with the gift of Himself that first Christmas. He gave Himself. And He was so good to show Himself to be very close and real to me in my moment in some small but significant ways. 

Like the Snoopy Christmas doghouse decal on Mom's ICU window. It was the only one on the floor. I love Snoopy, and the Lord used that simple little bit of cheer to assure me I was right where I was supposed to be. Then there was the sign a friend sent a pic of that she found at Kroger. It had my theme for this year on it, like my personal Christmas message, the words from a familiar carol….Comfort and Joy. She lives in another state, but I sent Rog to our local store and they had one! Again, just a little thing but it meant so much. 

Yes, a different kind of Christmas, one we weren't expecting, but beautiful just the same. The realization that HE is Christmas was powerfully whispered to me in those moments and I abandoned myself to Him, letting go of my irritation and alone-ness.  He filled me with Himself and all His good gifts...peace, hope, wonderful memories of Christmases past, thoughts of my precious family, and friendships I treasure. I wasn't missing Christmas at all.

I had all the Comfort and Joy to be found in Jesus right where I was. 

Summer Rains

...“He will send the rains in their proper seasons…”  Deuteronomy 11:14

We have been walking under the darkness of cloud cover these past few years.  Storms, some more violent and destructive than others have shaken us. But God has been in every one; He has never abandoned us to them.  And the darkness has only served to make His presence all the brighter, His voice, His declaration of love all the more clear. Like with Job of old, it has been a season, a season of loss, hardship, wondering, waiting.  But God remains great and good. He is faithful to His word. His peace is as powerful as I allow it to be, always bringing a calm, confident assurance in the messy moments, that the gentle rains of summer are coming, rains that revive and refresh and restore.  And my soul waits and longs for it.  

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, I am flooded with reasons I love this holiday. I have always found it interesting that a day to officially recognize the need and provide the opportunity to express thanks and gratitude was established amidst the division and agony of war.  It would not seem to be the best time to stop and acknowledge God or give thanks. Some might find it hard in that desperate time to find much to give God thanks for. But it was established...a day set aside to bring attention to the fact that being grateful matters. It changes things.  It changes us. Sadly for many it has become nothing more than “turkey day” to eat and watch football. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all the food associated with it myself. I live for a turkey sandwich all year. And the time with family relaxing and enjoying a game, especially if the family team is playing, is always a riotous and fun time. But it’s deeper and more meaningful than that.  And we always purposefully and intentionally appreciate and reflect, focusing on God and the good. This year is no different. Even in difficult days there is much to be thankful for.  

I lost my Daddy in September.  I knew one day I would face it, but for it to come so unexpectedly without sickness or warning, it was tough. But in the hurt and loss Jesus was so close and real.  He still is. He is in each sleepless night with quiet comfort and reassurance as memories overwhelm me. This year I am especially remembering how blessed I have always been to be  “my daddy’s girl”. Jesus has been in the prayers and hugs and kind words and visits and gifts of so many that let themselves be used by God to share in my grief. My heart nearly bursts with gratitude to think of the close friends that went out of their way, hundreds of miles, to just be there when I was hurting, and even literally “helped me breathe” when I didn’t think I could.  Jesus was in it all. Relationships were strengthened and renewed as cousins, aunts, uncles, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends came together to comfort and console and celebrate. We grieved, but we celebrated! And Daddy would have loved it! He was now with his Savior in heaven. And his family was all together. It was a beautiful thing.  

What are you experiencing that is making it hard for you to be grateful?  My season of waiting is not over. The “hits just keep coming” a friend has said, considering with me the situations that keep surfacing.  But they know and I know...God’s grace is amazing. His peace is powerful. His joy springs up and brings with it a song, and strength to keep waiting, keep trusting, keep resting in His great love.  Sometimes I just need to be reminded that a bigger purpose and plan is at work in this universe and God is in charge. What about you? We have a tendency to be so self-focused rather than God-focused.  What is God trying to accomplish in your life right now? Can you trust your Savior, our great God to bring beauty from your brokenness? Can you in faith trust a plan greater than your existence... His plan, that He may not be explaining right now?  Did Job ever know that all his suffering was orchestrated by satan to attempt to prove something to God? Nothing in Scripture indicates that God ever revealed to Job while in his earthly existence why he experienced what he did. And I am sure we will be astonished at the secrets that unfold in heaven about our own lives and why God allowed or did not allow certain things.  

In the meantime, lift your hearts in grateful praise to Jesus the Giver and Sustainer of life.  Don’t focus on the negatives, on the loss, on the hurt. Find the beauty and blessing in each moment. Keep the upward and eternal focus.  Keep looking to Jesus. Keep an ever thankful heart.   

And remember, the gentle rains of summer are coming.  

Faith and Flames

This morning I sat down to my Bible with a heavy heart.  I opened my Bible app to read,

 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is 

My strength and song.”  (Isaiah 12:2) 

I didn’t feel like singing.  I felt like crying. And I didn’t feel very strong.  I felt weak and helpless. I knew I could do nothing to change the pressing situation.  We were doing what we could, what we knew to do, but it wasn’t enough. “How long Lord?” I asked.  “How long can we hang on?”  

I am so grateful that God has given me His gracious gift of eternal salvation, but this morning we need another kind of “salvation”, a deliverance, a rescue, an intervention.  We need to see God do something only He can do to meet a pressing need. I want to continue to trust and not be afraid. And I know I can because He is a faithful Father.  

In the book of Daniel the three Hebrew children as they are often referred to, faced a huge crisis that could cost them their very lives.  (Read the account in Daniel 3.) Their commitment to King Nebuchadnezzar was called into question, but that was not the issue of greatest concern to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  They were faced with a question of devotion and loyalty to the one True God. Up to that point they had been able to peacefully serve God, and faithfully fulfil their responsibilities to the king and the kingdom they were a part of. But that was no longer enough to some of the government officials.  They wanted complete and total allegiance to their king and their gods at the expense of freedom to worship otherwise. The “three Hebrew Children” should never have been asked to make that choice, but they were. They were given an ultimatum: bow down and worship “our god our way”, or lose your lives.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew God was able to intervene. That was not questionable. And renouncing their devotion and worship to the only God that deserved it was not negotiable. So they responded to the ultimatum in this way:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our

God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will 

deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if He doesn’t (italics mine), be it known to you

O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have 

set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

This was not about Nebuchadnezzar and his gods or statue, and whether or not they should be worshipped.  This was not even about the three faithful God-followers and whether or not they would bend and give worship and allegiance to another god other than the One True God they served.  Those are lessons in all of this for sure. This was about who God is. Nebuchadnezzar asks the million-dollar question earlier:

“But if you do not worship (the statue I have set up), you shall immediately be cast into

a burning fiery furnace.  And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 

(italics mine) Daniel 3:15

Who is this God???  Is there One able to deliver from the powerful king?  Why is He to be trusted, worshipped, obeyed to the point of death?  Nebuchadnezzar’s question was about the Creator God’s sovereign nature and work on behalf of His Person and His children.  God was indeed able to deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar’s power. And He chose to intervene and rescue Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, keeping them from certain death in the flames.  Not only did God keep them from burning alive, He was there with them in the furnace!! And Nebuchadnezzar recognized Him as the Son of God! God gave this awareness to Nebuchadnezzar allowing him to recognize the Sovereign God and honor Him for Who He was.   

An amazing account... courage, commitment, crisis, undying devotion, determination, deliverance, faith.  And in all honesty, I am humbled. My situation pales in comparison to this, and the many dire circumstances and situations and suffering and heartache and loss and persecution that many are facing.  But that does not lessen the seriousness of my situation, or make it any less a concern of God’s. I am to “cast ALL my care on Him because He cares for me” (I Peter 5:7). I am His loved and valued child.  What I face by way of life’s challenges does matter to him, great or small. And in many ways it feels right now as if the heat has been turned up! The pressure is on!  

Needs can be great on a variety of levels.  Where does that leave us? As children of God we know, like the Hebrew children, that God is able to intervene in a miraculous way no matter the need.  His resources are limitless. He has made that clear in His Word. But God does not always choose to act in the way we most desire or expect. As His child, one who believes His Word and understands what He is certainly capable of, I have grappled with this from time to time as I face my own fiery furnaces, times when there are pressing needs and limited resources, limited abilities, times when there is absolutely no way to take away the hurt, fix the problem, provide the necessary finances, heal the sickness, fight the demons.  What do I do then? What is the answer? Where is the help, the hope, the comfort?

God stepped in and answered Nebuchadnezzar’s question, “Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?”  Nebuchadnezzar was able to exclaim:

“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel 

and delivered his servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the king’s command, and

yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God...for

there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”  

This passage provides some answers.  First, I go back to WHO GOD IS. He is Sovereign over this world He created; He is Sovereign over this soul He has saved; He is Sovereign over this life He has given.  “There is no other god who is able to rescue in this way!” He is able. I know personally, am loved by, this great Sovereign God! And my part? Look at those words…”trusted, yielded up”.  That’s my part. I am to trust and yield to His sovereignty, His authority, His control over the details of my life. He can be trusted. His work, His reason, may be greater than what we can understand at the moment.  We may not be able to figure it all out this side of eternity, why He did what He did, does not do what we know He could, why He allowed certain sufferings into our lives. But His great love for us grounds us in Who He is and compels us to keep trusting, trusting in the fact He is God and He is able, regardless.  

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  Romans 8:32

Until we come to the point in our faith-walk as “his devoted servants”, those He “spared not His own Son” for, that He is worthy of that kind of devotion and commitment; until we can trust Him in His Sovereignty, “yielding up” control and all the emotions of the moments--- fear, doubt, anger, “yield up” all the workings of our lives into His righteous, loving and just care;  until then we won’t see His amazing ability to work on our behalf. And when He determines that someone needs to see just Who He really is, He’ll step in. 

That’s just Who God is.   

What fiery furnace are you facing today?  What do you need to “yield up” to your loving, Sovereign Savior today?  In what ways are you trying to maintain or manipulate control of your situation? Have your decisions been made out of faith and devotion to Christ regardless of the cost, or out of fear of the consequences and changes that may come because of that decision?

Elusive Peace

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”...Colossians 3:15

The last few years have been some of the most unsettled and uncertain times I can remember in a very long time, well, except for when my teenage boys were driving!  And yet, there has been such peace. As the days roll into years that have been chocked full of change, at a time in our lives I thought things would be settling down, things are topsy-turvey again.  

Yes, again.  We’ve been here before.  Waiting on the Lord and wondering what next.  The wonderful thing in the middle of it all is that sweet peace, that calm and confidence in Jesus that “passes all understanding”.  I haven’t always been like this. One word that was once used to describe me (especially by my family) was ‘spastic’. And what exactly does that mean you might ask?  Well, in my neck of the woods, it was having some kind of emotional spasm, or what some today might commonly call ‘a melt-down’. Any major catastrophe, or minor one really, could send my emotions into overload.  The only thing I could never bring myself to do was break something. I might want to, but I knew that was taking it too far. But cry a river? Yes. Scream and yell? Yes, I could talk rather loud and excitedly. Worry and fret over something I could not change?  God had a work to do when I realized He wanted to have control over my emotions rather than me allowing my emotions to control me! He wanted me to have His peace.  

A situation like we have been dealing with now, years ago could have left me in a worried frenzy most days. Don’t get me wrong.  There are still occasional tears, and I’m not constantly jumping up and down for joy. But there IS joy, and that peace I spoke of earlier.  It has made all the difference between then and now.  

Experiencing God’s peace is SO much greater than experiencing the anguish of anxiety.  Peace is available with Christ, but it can seem elusive. Living IN CHRIST makes living in peace possible.  It takes a surrender of your will to His, maybe moment by moment until the calm and confidence comes. It means you are aware that Christ is holding you, with you always, praying for you, working all things for your good, comforting your tired and troubled heart.  When the heart is truly and fully confident in the goodness and greatness of God and resting in His Word and Way peace can reign. The emotions are checked and conquered in the certainty of God’s great love for me, especially when there is fear and uncertainty.   

Oh the questions and doubts that can surface in the fight for peace: Am I a loved and valued child of God?  Is God really concerned and aware of what I’m going through? If so, why isn’t He listening to me? Why doesn’t something give?  Be reminded here---peace is not the absence of chaos, conflict, pain and suffering, or violent, dark storms. Peace, the peace of Christ, is the beautiful sustaining strength and serenity in spite of it. It is not elusive. I just have to be willing to relinquish control to Him for it to be realized.  I can’t fret, can’t fix it, can’t fume or fuss...I must give in and give up. Surrender it, whatever IT may be, to Jesus. When what I want and what He chooses for me don’t line up, when my timing is not His timing, when the future is uncertain and the fears try to crowd in, when there are more questions than there are answers, when the needs are pressing and the provisions seem delayed, when the hurt is deep and the healing is long and painful...the true “Ruler”in my heart will present itself.  Is it the peace of Christ? Or is it me?

 For all life’s ups and downs?  I can do without the emotional roller coaster ride. I now prefer the “lazy river” ride myself.  

Peace, like a river.