Staying in Peace
Today Pastor Jenny shares all about staying in peace. "Rehearsing our problems will often rob us of our peace, but rehearsing the promises of God and praying through them will help us to STAY IN PEACE." She and our Fame Pastors will be walking us through the power of the fruits of the Spirit this Spring.
Around this time last year, my husband and I were getting our home ready for an open house. We had been praying about someday moving across town to a bigger home with a yard for the kids… maybe moving in a year or two …but God spoke so clearly that we should move now and that he had something really great for us. WOW! So, we started all the cleaning, purging, packing, paperwork, house hunting, etc., and believed God for a new house. It was exciting! And it was stressful. Ha! We had bought our little 1950s fixer upper ten years prior as young newlyweds and had remodeled every room and eventually raised our three kids in the house. It was FULL of so many fun memories! And the closer we got to selling, the more emotional I was feeling about selling it. I started worrying if we were making the right decision. I was getting discouraged by our options while house hunting. We would sit down to budget and I would feel anxious about the finances. Could we afford this move? As we trusted God and continued the process, I was determined to STAY IN PEACE. I opened my bible and re-read the verses God had given us about selling and moving (like Proverbs 11:26 – “they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell” Ruth 3:1 & 2 – “isn’t it about time I arranged a good home for you so you can have a happy life?...Maybe it’s time to make our move”). I wrote them down and hung them in my house, I found them on my bible app and took screenshots, I prayed through the verses as I packed my boxes. I had to stay in peace.The weekend of our open house, we had three offers that were higher than the asking price – wow again! We accepted one of the offers and just hours after we signed the paperwork, my mom called to say she received some test results and had been diagnosed with breast cancer. At this point, our plan had been to move in with my parents while we continued house hunting. Now I was feeling worried about my mom and wondering where we were going to live! And in the middle of all this, my grandma also needed to move in with my parents. So, within just weeks of selling our home, we had to put our stuff in storage, clean and pack up my grandma’s home and then move in with my parents – our family of five (and a dog!) + my cute grandma. And my mom started cancer treatments. Totally crazy. Once again, I had to pull out my verses and rehearse them and pray through them and believe God’s promises so I could STAY IN PEACE.Philippians 4:6 & 7 in the NLT reads, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything... Then you will experience God’s PEACE, which exceeds anything we can understand. His PEACE will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”The key to peace in this verse is praying, rather than worrying. It is easy to find things to worry about all day long – it can be something as serious as a health crisis or something very minor like a negative interaction with a cashier. It is the worrying that seems to steal our peace. But continually being in prayer helps us to STAY IN PEACE. And I think there is one more step to this process too… identifying/remembering the promises of God so that we can pray them. If I can figure out what I’m worrying about, and combat it by praying God’s promise, then I can STAY IN PEACE.
- PROMISE - Get a promise (word from God)
- PRAY - Pray the promise
- PEACE - Stay in peace: emotionally & mentally
We can’t always choose the situations we are in, but we can choose to walk through them in peace. Staying in peace means choosing to believe the promises of God, despite our situation. There is power in peace. The peace of God guards our emotions (hearts) and our thinking (minds). If I’m feeling worried about finances I find a verse about blessing and favor and prosperity, I underline it and pray through it and choose to STAY IN PEACE regarding our finances. I let peace guard my heart so I don’t have to feel over emotional and worried about our finances and peace guards my mind so that my thinking is right and I can continue making wise financial decisions. Rehearsing our problems will often rob us of our peace. But rehearsing the promises of God, and praying through them will help us to STAY IN PEACE. We can do this!
I am happy to tell you that my husband and I eventually found a really great home with an incredible yard for our children and it fulfills all the great promises God gave us just one year ago. My grandma found the perfect apartment just down the street from my parents. And my mom is now cancer free. Praise God!Would love to hear from you in the comments below! This week, in what difficult situation or area of your life can you identify a promise (word) from God so that you can pray through the promise and STAY IN PEACE?Love,Jenny Schneider