“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 4:7)
My husband and I have just lived through some stressful days as he was required to have a blood test to check the cancer he is experiencing in his bones and we were both very anxious about the result, as he is coping with a new form of treatment and the side effects have been quite severe. We had four days to wait for the result which was to come in a phone call from the Cancer Agency and the night before it was due, we both felt panic and unease overcoming us. The next morning, we awoke early and began our regular study and prayer, both very apprehensive about what the day would bring. As my husband opened our study guide, these are the opening words he read out aloud;
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14: 27)
We both felt the incredible presence of the Lord reassuring us that he knew how we were feeling and was encircling us with his peace and, as we felt that peace, the fear did disappear, and we were able to face what the day was to bring, and thanks be to God the news was good.
In the turmoil of stressful living it is hard to remember that one of the many beautiful promises Jesus makes to his followers is, peace. I tend to think of the word peace as being associated with tranquil settings, such as sitting beside a lake, or walking along a path bordered with tall stately, trees, or watching a sunset seated on a beach, but the amazing part of the peace Jesus offers, is that it can occur whatever we are doing and despite what chaotic happenings may be enveloping us.
The most important thing for us to remember is, that we can only experience that peace if we stay close to his presence because as soon as we drift away the world intercedes with ugly thoughts of worry, stressful situations overwhelm us, obstacles we are facing seem insurmountable. The Psalmists knew how important it was to seek peace actively and David uses a strange word that does not seem to fit with a sense of peace until we think deeply about his words;
“Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34: 14)
“pursue” is a verb full of action. That peace that transcends all understanding is only available when we keep a steadfast relationship with the Giver of perfect peace.
“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26: 3)
It is always surprising to me how the meaning of words can change with general usage and with time lose all the depth of the power they first had when they came into being. One of those words is, awesome. Young people use it with abandon, using it to describe a new article of clothing a friend is wearing, or some fun activity they participated in or to just interject it into a story someone is telling them, and by doing so, rob that incredible word of its true impact, rendering it to a casual word uttered without any thought to its real meaning. The other word that has suffered the same fate is worship. We have heard it casually, such as
So, when the Psalmist called the Heavenly Father, awesome, they were using it in its true sense and again they knew the true meaning of worship.
in particular, our own participation in worship. I had to think long and hard about this and realised that perhaps I had become casual about praising our Heavenly Father and not remembering his majesty and forgetting what an awesome God he is.
Social media publishes “fake news”
together in handing it over to the Father.
Last week, one of our granddaughters popped in to see us for a quick visit, just to see how we were, as my husband has not been well. Her time with us brought us great joy and her chatter lifted our spirits and we were delighted with the warm relationship we have with her. I was thinking back on this visit when our Bible study was studying prayer and, in particular, the verse from Thessalonians where Paul was encouraging young Christians to pray continually so their relationship with Christ Jesus would never grew cold. I suddenly realised that the Heavenly Father likes us to pop in and see him spontaneously without feeling that we need to ask him a whole lot of pressing needs, but can come just like our granddaughter, to spend an intimate time with him, just sharing whatever we are doing. I always find great wisdom in the Psalms, and the Psalmists knew how important it was to be constantly in touch with the Lord
smart phone, seemingly fastened to their hand, and chatting to someone wherever they are. We could do the same chatting to our Heavenly Father without even purchasing a smart phone.
I was reading an article just recently about a well, known statesman in our country who had just died, after a long career in government and the article was extolling the wonderful things he had achieved in his lifetime. The words all sounded familiar for an obituary until I came to this sentence, “He was a very humble man.” I was surprised to see them and then had to question myself as to why I was surprised as I did not usually associate that word with prominent, dynamic people constantly in the public eye. I then began to rethink what being humble meant. I first went to the dictionary;
intentions and there are several verses of warning about how quickly pride can bring about disaster e.g.
anything that is burdening us. So, we can be lifted by the loving hand of the Lord.
I must admit I am an incessant worrier. One of my daughters told me recently if I am not worrying, I worry what I should be worrying about. I am not proud of that at all and have tried over and again to curb this bad habit of mine and to trust in the Lord that he has everything under control. Last week, I was holding my youngest granddaughter (only 14 months old), in my arms as she slept in my lap, and as I looked at her trusting little face I remembered a beautiful verse in the Psalms that likened us as safe as a little child being held in the arms of our Heavenly Father.
We sing a beautiful song in our worship time in our church and the final line in every stanza ends with;
This week, the study my husband and I do together every morning, featured the book of Habakkuk and in the first chapter, the prophet is complaining to God at the state of the world as he sees it. As we read the first chapter I felt I was echoing Habakkuk’s words. He was horrified at what he was witnessing, at what was happening around him and I could relate to every word he said. I too had cried out to God when I first heard of the senseless shooting of innocent people at a fun music concert and then the constant stream of persecuted refugees fleeing their own countries in flimsy boats was heart breaking to watch on the news. This is what Habakkuk cried out to God;
The answer comes in these words;
At the end of the book Habakkuk is changed. He has learnt to trust that God is in control and will eventually work out all things for his glory and the closing verse is a good one for us all. Like Habakkuk we need to remember the Mighty God we serve and as we trust him he will give us the strength to follow him and to live by faith in him, despite what is raging around us.
One morning this week, I awoke early, before the sun had risen and that beautiful, pre-dawn stillness filled the air. I decided to go out for a little while and sit on our balcony and as I sat down, my eyes were drawn to the sky and I was amazed to see stars twinkling everywhere I looked. Vancouver, where I live, does not often treat us to such a spectacle as this. Rain, cloud, mist, heavy fog in winter is more likely to feature in the view we have from our apartment! As I gazed at God’s incredible handiwork, I felt a deep stirring within me and felt I started to understand what David was writing in Psalm 57 about that inner part of ourselves that responds to the Father’s love, our souls.
Jesus repeats this to his disciples again urging them to love the Lord God with the deepest most inner part of their bodies.;
guideline. Prayer is certainly the most effective way to open our souls to God and this book shows not only for our own benefit, but to take the deep love and compassion we receive as we open our souls to him, to all those around us.
Stumbling physically, has beset some of our Home Group lately, me included. I was foolish enough to go walking with inappropriate footwear and stood on a stone, stumbled, and turned so quickly I broke a bone in my foot. Another lady stumbled down the back stairs of her apartment building and ended up breaking her ankle. Stumbling obviously needs to be avoided. Scripture has many verses about stumbling and I suppose looking back to the uneven paths in ancient days and the flimsy sandals they wore, it would be a perfect illustration that everybody would understand when it was used to describe falling off the path chosen by God.
One of my favourite verses is David’s confident appraisal of his life as he knows he is walking with God in the light of life.
There is something about hearing your own name, even in a crowded room with lots of conversations taking place, if you hear someone mention your name, it triggers a reaction in your brain and you find yourself immediately looking in the direction from which you heard it. Our family is at present being entertained by our little, fourteen, month old, granddaughter, who is trying hard to speak and loves to point to one of us and attempt to say our names. Of course, we all jump in to help her as the satisfaction of even hearing a somewhat garbled version brings us great delight and she is rewarded with lots of smiles in return.
When the Lord calls us by name, it is not the fact of just our names he knows, he knows absolutely everything about us. Out in the world, there are very few people we let know, perhaps none, of our personal thoughts, our fears, our insecurity, even our hopes and desires. David writes a beautiful Psalm (Psalm 139), about this topic in which he revels in the fact that the Heavenly Father knows all there is to know about him and he can relax, knowing the Lord loves him just as he is, he doesn’t need to pretend to be anybody else.
Our thoughts are the most private part of our personalities and we only divulge them to those we totally trust, the Prophets also knew that to know that the Lord knew every thought they had was liberating, not something that they had to conceal.
God Speaking 