Ongoing Peace
Hope is powerful. It can spur us on to act with courage, sustain us when we feel weak and too weary to take another step, and enable us to savor God’s goodness even when bad seems to crowd in on all sides. Yes, hope can play a significant role in our lives as we trust God in all circumstances. However, hope doesn’t mean we pretend everything is all roses. It doesn’t ignore the bad that surrounds us but trusts God in the middle of it. Hope causes us to live expectantly.
There is a difference between hand-delivering to God our set of expectations of what we think should happen, and living expectantly. I know it sounds like a nerdy play on words, but I’ve been mulling this over for a while now. Hope is not giving God a list of our desired outcomes, but keeping a heart of expectancy that He will act according to who He is and He will accomplish all He has said He will do. I think we too often get stuck on what we think needs to happen and forget to surrender our desires to His. After all, we are taught to pray, “Thy will be done,” not make my desires happen.
It’s easy to give God our requests and our cries for help. “Do You see what’s happening, Lord? Are You going to intervene soon and fix our mess?” We let worry weigh our hearts down and our prayers become like broken records with little to no expectation that He will answer. We sometimes forget to revel in His attributes and to declare that He is trustworthy and faithful. We must affirm that God is good and He is in control over all things, even the circumstances that steal our rest at night.
C.S. Lewis said, “If you wake up feeling fragile, remember that God is not, and then trust Him to be everything you need today.” David similarly declares in Psalm 46: 1 – 3:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”
When shocking circumstances spin around us, we must remember that He is our refuge and strength. He is with us! He is our very present help in trouble. As Philippians 4: 6 – 7 tells us, we can turn our anxious thoughts into prayers, and as we do, His peace calms our fears.
I believe our level of peace is proportionate to our level of trust in God. Do I trust Him to take my anxious thoughts and exchange them with peace? Do I trust Him to lead me, strengthen me, and sustain me? His peace is completely independent of our circumstances. This is what makes the world marvel. This is how our souls can be well even when circumstances scream out it is not well! God’s peace is not fickle, it is consistent and solid. It is not based on life happening the way I think it should, but on the goodness and faithfulness of God. And as we turn our eyes upon Jesus, the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. (Helen Howarth Lemmel). He is always good and always faithful. He is always in control.
