Peace
This year I bought us a year long devotional book from David Jeremiah called ‘Walking with God’ to do together. I’ll be the first to admit this week we finally caught up after being almost 2 weeks behind at one point. When Blake went to South Carolina last minute for a week long work trip followed by a 5 day trip to Denver together for a convention we got behind and we had to work at catching up. But the key is: we don’t give up. We double up (or triple up) and we keep going. The devotionals are only about 5 minutes of reading so we do them over coffee, pray together, and head off to our separate jobs. I 10/10 recommend this for all couples. I’m doing the read through the bible in a year again this year on my own but our devotionals together are a married life favorite for me.
The March 7th devotional was about peace. The timing was actually a smidge late for me as I have had to fight for my peace the last few weeks. Without oversharing I’ll say this: after finding out that my Dad was retiring and my parents were moving with very little notice I had a health scare that kept me up at night for a few weeks wondering what the Lord was up to. Here’s what I know: we are not called to fear. We are not to be controlled by our fear. We are to be people of faith. There is nothing I want more than to walk confidently in that faith because I know my God lives and is in control from the throne. However, hear me when I say it was a battle! In the midst of grieving the change to my family living 3 miles away to living 3 state away, I was worried about my health and what that might mean. I was battling in my head.
Let’s normalize that the Christian walk isn’t always easy and we never get it all right. I knew I needed to keep fighting so I took some time to fast and pray as I waited to get what eventually would be an ‘all clear’ on my health. I had no intention of sharing this on the blog since I didn’t even share with my family while it was going on but then the 3/7/23 devotional hit me between the eyes. There’s a quote in it from a woman farmer and she says (paraphrasing here): I live in peace because the world didn’t give me my peace and the world can’t take my peace away.
Read that again.
The world doesn’t give me my peace and the world cannot take my peace from me.
I share today to say this: fight for your peace. Fight in prayer. Fight with the truth that can only be found in the word. Fear is normal and it will come but don’t stay stuck in a place of fear, cling to the Lord. He is sovereign. He is faithful. He is present. He is available.
