How to Increase Your Peace in a Peace-less Season
Photo by Justin Groep
Does peace feel as distant as the moon right now?
In emotionally difficult seasons, finding peace can seem impossible. But here are a few things the Bible says about finding peace—and the One Who Is Peace.
1. The Lord Himself is peace for your heart. Focus your thoughts on Him.
Take a moment and really consider these descriptions of the Lord:
But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22–23 AMP)
Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all! (2 Thess. 3:16 NASB)
Bill Johnson says, “Peace is a person. When the prevailing influence on our hearts and minds is the Presence of Jesus, we have peace that conquers.”
Let’s make sure that our “prevailing influence” is the Lord and not fear, doubt, or anything else. The Lord Himself is peace, and the result of His presence is peace, and we can experience His peace in every circumstance.
2. You get to CHOOSE peace, not just hope for it.
Take a moment and really consider these descriptions of the Lord:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phil. 4:8 NASB)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27 ESV)
Many times we lose our peace because we’re focused on the wrong things: the problem, the “bad” thing, what could go wrong, how easy it would be for everything to fall apart, etc. But God invites us to think in a different way.
Instead of thinking about what could go wrong, we get to think good thoughts—about good things and good possibilities. Philippians 4:8 gives us a list of what’s good to think about.
It can be hard to turn our focus from what is wrong or what might go wrong to what is already good, but if we keep at it, we will eventually find ourselves walking in greater peace.
Because God is who He is, our being fearless is a choice. We can’t necessarily keep ourselves from feeling nervous or anxious, but we can choose Him and choose to believe Him even when the world around us is shouting and going crazy.
3. Rely on His understanding, not on human expectations or knowledge.
Take a moment and really consider these descriptions of the Lord:
Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart
And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. (Prov. 3:5 AMP)
The fear of man brings a snare,
But one who trusts in the Lord will be protected. (Prov. 29:25 NASB)
Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth. (Col. 3:2 NET)
You and I are imperfect people. We often struggle with fear, shame, beliefs about God that are completely wrong, heartache, a strong desire to hide from people, etc. These things can have a powerful influence on the way we view the world around us.
If we want to see the world or ourselves clearly, we need to rely on the Lord’s view, not ours. He knows exactly what is going on and why, and we get to tap into that wisdom and understanding when we trust Him.
“Father, today I choose to trust You and rely on Your wisdom. What are You saying about ______________? Because I want Your opinion in this matter.”
Your heavenly Father loves you more than you realize. Check out these other devotions from BTO:
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