Tranquility in life

This world is swirling with pure angst, anger, pain and confusion.

What would be attractive to someone struggling to navigate such an environment in their life?

Peace.

Calm, comforting, inviting peace. Peace that gives them strength to not just exist but to thrive in ways they’ve never known.

Believers are called to offer this peace.

Ephesians Chapter 6:15 (KJV) – “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;”

This peace from our Savior gives us tranquility – peace in our spirit as we face the forces of this world wielded against us.

Peace strengthens and protects us so we can march on against trouble.

Romans 5:1: (KJV) – “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

What person – who is facing so many trials and tribulations in life – wouldn’t be attracted to such peace? The world craves such peace.

Romans 14:17-19 (KJV) – “17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 18For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 19Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.”

Now, disciple, lean into your faith in Christ, and let the light of peace stand out in the darkness of this swirling world.

3 Questions for now

Peace be with you.

And also, with those you know.

Here are three questions that could help you start a conversation:

• What do you do to find balance in your life?

• What is something you've learned that changed the way you see the world?

• When do you feel most at peace with yourself?

Is the notes section in your phone filling up with questions so you may check back with them as you can?

When opportunity arises, ask one of these questions and follow the Lord’s lead.

Be kind. Love them. Be bold.

Be at peace in the world.

Shawn’s noodling rant:

(“Noodling” is a term I swiped from my mentor. The meaning is to “ponder” or “think deeply about” a topic that God is challenging us with through scripture or the Holy Spirit, or both.)

Dizzying world calls us to deliver peace through Christ

I’m daily amazed at how the dizzying swirl of life in this world so easily consumes and even overwhelms our senses.

Almost everything we encounter – news, television, internet, social media, radio, people – want all of our attention all of the time.

Sometimes the only peace in this world is sleep, and even then we awake unrested and restless. Our minds seem to not shut off enough to recharge fully, properly.

Mix in varying degrees of pain and loss – job stress, job loss, finances, death of a loved one – and we can be easily overwhelmed. We might even question what God is “doing to us.”

We need the peace that Christ offers, and we need it more than we realize it.

Psalm 55:16-18 (KJV) – “16As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. 17Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. 18He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.”

Peace, like the sword of the Word of God, is part of the whole armor of God. And God gave us this armor to battle on in this world – to live in spiritual peace in the midst of the crazy swirling of this world.

Because this world is not our home, we are afforded a way to walk this Earth in peace that most humans are missing. That peace comes from our faith in Jesus and the life-changing salvation He offers.

Paul shares this with us in Philippians 4:9 (KJV) – “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”

Now, disciple, pause, relax.

Let the whirlwind of this world spin out of control while you look to Jesus. His peace delivers strength so you can step directly into the whirlwind and stand out as an example of what peace on Earth truly looks like.

John 14:27 (KJV) – “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”