God's timing is so perfect. As I looked at the title of this chapter I smiled. I would change the wording just a bit "He has stilled and quieted my soul".
When I am weak He is strong. The peace I have today is of Him, there is no doubt about it. This morning before I began my devotional time I perused my prayer journal entries of the last four weeks. Pain, bewilderment, confusion, desperation, these are but a few of the emotions that are spilled out across the pages of my journal. Yet today I have a peace that belies what has been written.
Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
Jennifer writes "Experiencing real shalom seems nearly impossible in our chaotic lives" Isn't THAT the truth! Of course it is nearly impossible not totally impossible.
She goes on to tell us that "Before we can really appreciate the source of peace, we need to acknowledge why we have angry, smoldering embers in our thought closets to begin with. We must identify the source of our anger"
Once again I find myself a bit ad odds with this study. As I look into my thought closet I don't see anger. What I do see is fear and doubt. This terrible duo can be just as destructive as anger so I found that as I continued in this chapter the truth of God is just as effective against them as anger.
It was not hard at all to identify the source of my fear and doubt. His name is Brett, I love him with all that I am. He is the oldest of my four children. He is in jail. I have absolutely NO control over him or the outcome of his trial.
What I DO have control over is:
my own attitude
my responses to circumstances
my choice to seek God
my determination to be still before God
my choice to acknowledge that He is God and we are not!
In my book I circled something on page 105 and I wrote next to it Lindly.
The text is a bible verse "Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)
At a moment of utter weakness and despair my precious daughter sent me a link to a youtube video of Steven Curtis Chapman's song of the same name. I felt as if Jesus himself had come down from the throne room of heaven to give me that message. I took it in and spoke it to my thought closet. The result was peace and sleep that evening. Both of those things had been eluding me up until then.
Of the three Washouts on the Path to Peace that Jennifer mentions I will say that the most difficult for me has been A Negative Mind -Set
She writes "Some things in life are simply hard. We don't like them, we don't want them, but we have to deal with them anyway." So true! We can deal with them in our own power and be scorched with the flames of anger or beat down by despair or we can seek God and speak His words of peace into our thought closets which will enable us to overcome even the hardest things in life!
6 comments:
Tina,
I thought the same thing about the title of the chapter. It is HE who enables us to do all things. However, knowing all that she said in her chapter, I believe she has titled it such because WE DO have control over stilling and quieting our soul through the measures she gave...through our gasoline or water words, our attitude, our mindset, our anger, etc. So, we do have the power to quiet our souls (ultimately that power comes from US relying on Him and going to Him in prayer for His help).
I love Phil. 4:7 and also the ones preceeding and following: Phil 4:4-8.
Morning Tina, there is much that I don't directly relate to in this book but God always takes my thoughts to that dark place that needs me to allow His light into. Wow, I can't even imagine...so thankful you have Him.
This was really good Tina.I pray everything works out for your son who is in jail. Watching my kids go through stuff this last year has been so trying for me so I know how it is for a Mom's heart to ache.
So glad you are doing this study.
Blessings,
Lelia
Tina,
I'm so full that you have peace right now. It's been such a rough few weeks. The hardest thing for me to realize as I went through it with my Brett was that I could not control him, only how I responded.
May God continue to fill you with peace, and love. I pray that Brett finds full and complete restoration in his soul with Jesus in the midst of it. I've meet many who have go in to jail angry and full of hate and fear, that have come out full of the love of God. They are powerful testimonies of God saving grace, and I believe that God will do that work in your Brett as well.
Love you,
Carol
Offering up many prayers for you, your son, and your entire family. May God continue to watch over all of you and fill you with the peace of His presence and love.
Tina, I LOVE your point about who actually stills and quiets our souls! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers this week. I'm keeping you and your boy in mine. Just remember - seven times seven hundred, that's how many times we ask! Love you, dear sister.
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