If You are right here, right now, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there . . .
If it is true that In You is peace . . . (John 16:33)
If Isaiah 26:3 is true, that if I keep my mind stayed on Thee I will have perfect peace . . .
Then, right here, right now is where I must stay. Not allowing thoughts about tomorrow or even three minutes from now swallow up this moment. Swallow me up.
Sometimes this battle for peace is so intense. A calm and undisturbed mind is life and health and peace. How do I keep that calm and undisturbed mind? By remaining right here, right now.
The everyday pressures of life, they build. The ear piercing scream of a discontented three year old, again . . . the beans boiling over . . . the mounting bills, no work in sight . . . the heart ache of so.many.mamas with prodigals . . . the fears that haunt and stalk . . . the strife among the siblings . . . all these, and they are just the “everyday” pressures.
The tension mounts—I have a choice, stay right here, right now with You, where my only hope of peace actually is, or I can be swallowed up by the mounting pressure and give vent to fear, anxiety, and acquiesce to the stress.
I bow my head, cry out to You. You are right here, right now, with me. It is in You that I live and move and can love and breathe and can deal with what is right in front of me. I can choose peace, I really can. To believe otherwise is a lie.
The God Who created the whole world . . . the God Who loves me enough to die for me . . . the God Who conquered sin and the devil . . . the God Who has my very name carved in the palm of His hand . . . the God Who walked on the water and calmed the storm with His words . . . the God who never, ever leaves me is RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!
Deep cleansing breath! Peace returns . . . for now. This would not be the end to the teaching and training in the peace. My Father continues to lovingly and gently (though it doesn’t feel so gently all the time 
Relentlessly Pursuing . . . Peace.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
Here is something cool that I just learned from a college student studying to be a doctor. She said that medically speaking your brain will produce synapses with each thought and then it will automatically go to that particular synapse (creating a habit) and then it builds on that same synapse and that studies have shown when you renounce a certain thought it actually helps to stop that synapse and create a new one!!!! This was in response to talking about the same stuff but from a spiritual perspective. (all your R's from the last post we were talking about in our covenant group 2 weeks ago!!!) How cool that God designed our bodies to be in agreement body/soul/spirit and that when we are transformed by the renewing of our mind it is spiritual and literal (physical) and changes you in your soul (mind/will/emotions/intellect). Simply amazing!!!! Not that it is just changing a habit, God's power changes us, but how cool that we can be in such agreement down to the synapses in your brain. =0) That's not will power that is God power!
ReplyDeleteSO needed this tonight. Thank you, Michelle. You are becoming one of my favorite people. :)
ReplyDeleteI can go from a peaceful, contented place in the Spirit to a worried, stressed, discontented place in the flesh in about 2.3 seconds. What a battle this is sometimes. I am right here with you, relentlessly pursuing peace. Thank you for that word picture. You are precious.