Articles
The Lord of Peace
If you look up peace in the dictionary, you will understandably see fear, anxiety, and worry as opposites to peace. Overtime as a society we have come to our own mistaken understanding: in order to have peace, you can’t have problems, you can’t have fears, you can’t have anxieties. This societal understanding of peace is wrong.
Peace is not an absence of our trials but the presence of God in our hearts despite them. Because God is the Lord of peace, and if we are truly abiding in Him, then we will be given the strength to positively overcome our trials. Facing trials and overcoming them with God is an immense opportunity to grow in our faith because it helps us recognize the power God adds to our lives.
Before David fought Goliath, he learned this exact same lesson as he was protecting his sheep from the beasts of the world. The Bible does not mention how David felt when chasing and facing bears and lions to protect his sheep. The Bible does not mention if sheep ever died from these beasts, if David ever got hurt, or the many other trials he probably had to overcome while guarding his sheep. But the Bible does say that no matter the trials David faced and how many times he faced them, God was the One who got David through them. We need to see David’s wisdom in recognizing that God is who rescues us from our trials--not always in the physical sense as David’s example, but always in the spiritual and emotional sense.
Trials are bittersweet because they can have so much beauty and comfort while also being your worst nightmare. You have the choice whether to be comforted by its beauty or swallowed by its pain. You just need the courage to face your fears with God so that He can bestow you the peace that comes with His hope. The wonderous thing about hope is that you don’t always need to physically experience it to feel its benefits. By choosing to rely on God and trying to see His goodness with our limited human understanding, you will feel such an empowering feeling because God gives love and goodness and you chose to embrace His gifts over whatever negatives you may be facing.
David recognized the strength and peace that God provides and so he faced Goliath with God. The question is, will you?
Inspired by: Hebrews 13:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Romans 16:17-20; 1 Samuel 17
