Being Content Hope

Peace Rules

This continues a mini-series on peace. The first two parts can be found here and here.

It’s amazing the things that can weigh down our hearts – minor travails like finding the right Christmas present for that hard-to-please person, to major concerns like the unfavorable prognosis that a loved one received.. It’s not difficult to find things in this world to focus our care and concern on.  Unmet needs abound and problems that can’t be fixed are plentiful.

Despite this turmoil, Scripture tells us that the Christian can have peace. In fact, in Colossians 3:15 we are commanded to “let the peace of Christ rule your heart.” What is so great about this directive is that it is something that is volitional – we can choose to let Christ’s peace reign. This means that despite the bad news we receive today, despite the unexpected bill that comes in mail, and despite even the unexpected loss of a loved one, our hearts can be dominated by peace. This isn’t to say it’s easy – it certainly isn’t – but it is possible. And in that, in knowing that it is possible for the Prince of Peace to flood our heart, there is hope for weathering the storms.

Of course, this also means that we can choose to not let Christ’s peace rule. This means that we can choose to struggle underneath the cares of this world. We can elect to let worry and anxiety set up residence in our heart. We can be people who let turmoil rock us and let trials derail us. However, the One who calmed the wind and the seas, desires to calm our hearts as well . And the more we choose to let Christ’s peace rule, the less the temporal struggles of this world will seem an unmanageable burden when compared to the weight of glory.

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Being Content

Fixing My Mind

In a previous post I wrote about Isaiah 26:3. This is Part 2 on that same verse.

I remember when the uncertainty of adulthood first hit me. I had graduated with my master’s degree and was working at a publishing company.  It was the first time since preschool that I wasn’t enrolled in some type of academic pursuit. And it dawned on me.

I had no idea what was next.

All my life, I knew what the next step looked like. When I finished preschool, I would go to kindergarten. After kindergarten, elementary school. Eventually this would lead to junior high, high school, college and then graduate school, and then,

nothing.

Or at least nothing that I could rightly anticipate and point to. The prescribed path ended at that moment and only uncertainty lay ahead.

This would be the first, but not the last time I was faced with the starkness of not knowing what the future hold. Years have passed since then, and I still have days where I’m struck with how unclear everything is. I’ve come to learn that we all have times like that. There are seasons where life is like driving on a dark road in a foggy night; we have no idea what waits for us around the next bend.

And in the midst of these times, God promises that He will hold us in peace, if our minds are fixed on Him. What does it mean to fix our minds on God? I’ve come learn that it means simply this – when we start to think of all the things that consume our concern in this life, we return instead to Him. We dwell on the details of His beauty, rather than on the minutiae of our cares. We realize that the complete insufficiency of our knowledge and ability is enveloped in the complete sufficiency of His. We stop talking to ourselves about all that we have to do, and we start recalling all that He’s done. In other words, our thoughts and attention are so focused on Him, that we are no longer looking to ourselves.

How do we do this practically? We remind ourselves of the promises of His faithfulness. We recount the good things that He has already in our lives. And we rest in the knowledge that He is actively bringing about His purposes, even using our uncertainty to accomplish His will.

In times of uncertainty, may we increasingly fix our minds on Him. May our thoughts be focused on Who He is and what He’s doing. And may we live lives of peace because we know the One who is orchestrating the plan.


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