Journal Entry ~ 12/26/19
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27 NIV)
Jesus came to bring us peace. Yet, so often in life, that peace is fleeting. It’s difficult to grab ahold of for any length of time. We may find it in situations, but then something comes along to disrupt our peace and we find ourselves struggling again.
The problem is we’re looking for peace in the wrong places. We’re allowing our earthly situation dictate our peace - this is why our peace is fleeting. We want things to go a certain way, and when they don’t, our peace is interrupted. We all have an image in our mind of how we define peace - how relationships should work, what our comfort looks like, and how secure we feel. When these things are all in place according to some predefined script in our minds, we feel at peace. But when those things are out of place, or not going according to plan, our peace is destroyed and we find ourselves struggling.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. It doesn’t same He came to fix our situation or make things easy for us, it says He came to give us His peace. It doesn’t say our relationships will always work the way we want them to, it doesn’t say we will always feel comfortable or secure, it says we will know His peace - that means despite our circumstances, we should know His peace.
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve been learning this year is this: Life doesn’t have to be perfect to have peace. Everything doesn’t need to go according to my plan to know His peace. It all doesn’t need to be perfect to be beautiful. It’s in that “perfect” that I tend to lose my peace.
As a perfectionist, my mind has a tendency to dwell on situations or interactions until I find all the little imperfections and my peace is destroyed. Reflecting on our incredibly beautiful Christmas celebration yesterday, my mind races through conversations and interactions to find the words I could have chose better, the moments I could have captured better, the things I could have done to make the day better. Instead of focusing on the simple beauty of being together as a family, I have a tendency to focus on all the things that could have been done better and my peace is destroyed. My focus is in the wrong place when I allow that to happen - my peace is being defined by my situation and not by the One who brings me peace.
Life doesn’t have to be perfect to have peace. Life isn’t going to be perfect, but I can still know peace. Jesus says do not let your hearts be troubled. Let it go. Today, I am working on letting all the little imperfections in my life and my interactions with others go, and I am finding HIS perfect peace.
Press on ~ you are loved 💗
Jesus came to bring us peace. Yet, so often in life, that peace is fleeting. It’s difficult to grab ahold of for any length of time. We may find it in situations, but then something comes along to disrupt our peace and we find ourselves struggling again.
The problem is we’re looking for peace in the wrong places. We’re allowing our earthly situation dictate our peace - this is why our peace is fleeting. We want things to go a certain way, and when they don’t, our peace is interrupted. We all have an image in our mind of how we define peace - how relationships should work, what our comfort looks like, and how secure we feel. When these things are all in place according to some predefined script in our minds, we feel at peace. But when those things are out of place, or not going according to plan, our peace is destroyed and we find ourselves struggling.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. It doesn’t same He came to fix our situation or make things easy for us, it says He came to give us His peace. It doesn’t say our relationships will always work the way we want them to, it doesn’t say we will always feel comfortable or secure, it says we will know His peace - that means despite our circumstances, we should know His peace.
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve been learning this year is this: Life doesn’t have to be perfect to have peace. Everything doesn’t need to go according to my plan to know His peace. It all doesn’t need to be perfect to be beautiful. It’s in that “perfect” that I tend to lose my peace.
As a perfectionist, my mind has a tendency to dwell on situations or interactions until I find all the little imperfections and my peace is destroyed. Reflecting on our incredibly beautiful Christmas celebration yesterday, my mind races through conversations and interactions to find the words I could have chose better, the moments I could have captured better, the things I could have done to make the day better. Instead of focusing on the simple beauty of being together as a family, I have a tendency to focus on all the things that could have been done better and my peace is destroyed. My focus is in the wrong place when I allow that to happen - my peace is being defined by my situation and not by the One who brings me peace.
Life doesn’t have to be perfect to have peace. Life isn’t going to be perfect, but I can still know peace. Jesus says do not let your hearts be troubled. Let it go. Today, I am working on letting all the little imperfections in my life and my interactions with others go, and I am finding HIS perfect peace.
Press on ~ you are loved 💗
Comments
Post a Comment