Peace of God

...Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. (Luke 2:13)

Peace...I love it.  The peace and quiet of nature.  The peace of lying beside your sleeping child in the comforts of a blessed home.  The peace of wearing high-quality earphones in the house of a musician.  The peace of finding a totally awesome pair of comfortable, designer shoes on 75% off clearance when you have birthday money to spend.  The peace of finishing an on-going project.  The peace of a good marriage.  The peace of the Lord! 

I haven't always been able to rest in it though.  The great thing is that I've been able to work through insecurities and other sins in my life that has helped me to rest more in the peace that only comes from the Father.  His peace has always been a constant, it's just been my decision and ability to walk in it that has been a little choppy.  I remember going through my final two years of college.  It was one of the most difficult times of my life...new baby, nursing, no sleep, no money, daughter who had a hard time "appreciating" our scaled-down lifestyle, a husband that worked himself into exhaustion trying to keep the finances afloat, studying that only seemed to work out between the hours of midnight and 3 a.m.(I refer you back to the new baby part), and the overall expectation that I put on myself to be the perfect student, mother, church member, wife, etc...yet still there was always the peace of God in my life.  Never once did I doubt that, despite all of the difficulties, I was exactly where I was supposed to be and God was pleased with what I was doing.  I also know what it's like to make decisions without the peace of God while knowing the entire time that He was everything but pleased.

His peace truly is beyond all earthly understanding.  It's sweet.  It's calming.  It's liberating.  It's what keeps me going when the world gets crazy.  It keeps me sane when there seems to be no answer to a problem...or when that answer is delayed far longer than I think it should be.  It's absence let's me know something is wrong...like when I go into Sam Moon's :).  When I don't have the peace of God, it prompts me to start investigating where the problem lies.

Here's what's absolutely ridiculous on my part...

With this house situation issue debacle opportunity...I have a peace that everything is going to be fine.  The Lord is going to provide the right house at the right time for us. (Yet I continue to remind Him where we are...as though He's forgotten!)  Like I said, there's a peace within me.  I even have a peace in me that we're just fine even though my mother-in-law had to move in with us sooner than we all expected.  We planned to be in a larger home before that happened...of course, the Lord wasn't surprised.  However, there are times in the midst of this on-going opportunity that I have been tempted to jump out of the peace I'm walking in.  The enemy tries on a daily basis to steal my joy and my peace.  I check realtor.com everyday...sometimes twice a day.  Yet, my heart is for one place...one home...that I don't believe I'll ever see on realtor.com.  The dumb thing is that I get let-down when I don't see any new houses on the market.  This spirits of desperation and depression try to overcome me...sometimes I step out of God's peace and over into the darkness of the "it's never going to happen" lie.  Why?  Why do I listen to the lies of the enemy?  Paul, I'm feelin' ya' with the whole, "why do I do the things I hate to do?"  I cannot deny that I possess a peace about our home, so I hate when I fall for the enemies plot to get me over on his side.  Quit being double-minded, Shannon...quit being double-minded!

So I sigh and laugh at myself as I'm typing this.  I have a GREAT life.  I have a home that would be a palace to so many people in this world.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I love that we are not financially bound up in debt, mortgages, medical bills, etc.  We are able to bless other people at the drop of a hat.  I don't ever want to get to the point where we can't bless others.  You want to talk about peace...now there's you some peace.  The peace of the Lord will absolutely saturate you when you're serving and loving others...so I'm going to continue to sit back in perfect peace and enjoy this day...I will choose to see the blessings within the situation.  I will walk in the peace and know that every storm and situation is completely under His control.  Do what you need to do Lord, and I'll just sit here in the joy of Your peace and actively wait for Your instructions...