I search for peace day and night. I can tell when it eludes me because I begin to feel anxious and my thoughts are jumping over multiple tracks never landing on the one that will bring me peace.
Trying to catch a lightning bug across a yard after his light goes out is easier to do than catching peace. My peace escaped through my fingers recently because I’ve taken the worries of the world upon myself again and left God out.
Why is this so easy to do? I am able to slip back into this pattern so effortlessly that it materializes undetected. The increments are so tiny by which they occur, a turtle could pass faster than my sliding.
The last few days I have let life take over, it has a funny way of doing that, so my soul thirsts for what I’ve lost—my peace. I sat down with God’s Word this morning with this heavy on my heart. Truthfully, when I open His Word I sometimes think, “Wow, that is just what I needed,” or “God, I’m not really sure I get what you are saying here,” or simply, “Huh?”
When we read the same scripture multiple times, what was once a, “Huh?” can turn into a “Wow!” Those days are the best days.
Proverbs 3:17, “Her ways (wisdom’s ways) are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.” NIV
The first time I read this, I had a neutral response. I thought, “Okay,” and went on to read the subsequent verses. Since really soaking up Proverbs this last month and gaining understanding that wisdom develops by fearing (revering) the Lord, I read this verse again with my peace hanging out to dry and thought, “Wow! I get it!”
Our peace is interwoven with reading His Word every day. When we do, we take up the sword of God’s armor which is the only offensive piece we are given. Might I add, it is the only piece that is needed. His piece brings peace.
Without God’s sword, we are merely accepting the hits of life and standing there taking them one by one.
Pick up your sword found in the pages of the Word of God, revere Him, learn His truths, and the author of peace and wisdom will erase every other track that does not belong in your life and reveal the only one that does.
In order to gain peace, we need to gain God. The choice is ours. We can either allow life to continue serving uppercuts, or we can utilize the gift of God’s sword.
He is the author of peace, so why do we try to read self-help books or any other book to find it? Why try to catch a lightning bug a yard away when there is one right by your side? His light never goes out. We just need to be willing to catch it.