A Touch More On Peace

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Jesus has already fought the fight for us so that we don't need to. Look, right here in John he says "I have overcome the world." And he has done just that. Jesus already paid the price for us so that we do not have to be troubled by this world. We don't! We have peace in Christ, and it's there for us for the taking. If I read the headlines or watch the world news reports they are so full of doom and gloom. They are full of disasters and economic trouble and are overall, full of bad news. When did reporting the news become just about reporting the bad? I guess I'm just thinking that as a Christian, I can look at those new reports in one of two ways. On one hand, I can look at them, see how terrible things are, and I can go along with it. I can get caught up in worry and concern and panic. OR. I can turn my thoughts and my mind to heaven, and grab hold of the peace the passes all understanding. I can praise God, because I know that despite terrible things, He's got my back and will see me through.

I guess it just changes how I look at things to really think about God's peace. I guess when something bad happens to us, I always think about how that is an opportunity for God to really do something cool. Losing a job is an opportunity for a great new one to come along- or an opportunity to do something during the time off. Andy may very well be at the beginning of a lay-off time. And at first thought, that makes me really nervous about finances, but I guess I just don't dwell on the negative, and instead, I think about how cool it's going to be to be able to tell everyone we know about how God sees us through the hard times. I can still tell you with absolute certainty that two years ago, our income and our expenses do not line up. I paid far more bills than we had money for during Andy's lay-off time. Yet, somehow I was able to meet each and every one of our obligations, and our checking account remained solvent. God provided completely. This year, God provided extra work for Andy several months before he even needed it- now that is just plain cool. When those people started calling in October, looking for Andy to build sets for them this winter, we knew that was God telling us that he had our back this winter. Yet, in a week here, Andy could very well be called back to work, it's all in God's hands how things work out.

Regardless how things work out, I'm not worrying about it a bit, because I have a real peace about everything. Now that is a true gift from God, I've never had peace about Andy's impending lay-off time, and it's always been stressful for us. But you know, when we succumb to the stress and permit our minds to dwell on it, it consumes us. It's all I can think about, how we're going to pay this bill and that bill. It takes up every waking second, and even some sleeping seconds as well. So I rebuke the stress. I rebuke the worry and the bad thoughts that come because of it. Instead, I rejoice and I thank God for his provision and for the great things that are to come. If Andy has time off, it's because he needs the time off. If Andy works, it's because he needs to work. Regardless, the bills will be paid and the peace will remain. I have compete faith in Jehovah Jireh, our provider, and Jehovah Shalom, our God of peace.