Peace

Have you ever noticed that stress is a vicious cycle? Some people are positively affected by stress. I don’t happen to be one of those people. Sometimes a certain amount of stress is a motivating factor for me, but normally it causes me to be paralyzed and procrastinate. Of course, that is not helpful. If I am paralyzed, then I am unable to do anything to improve the situation that is causing stress. If I procrastinate, I cause even more anxiety in my life; the longer I wait to act, the more the stress builds up. You see where I am going with this?

So then, what is the relationship between stress and peace? God promises us peace and joy, but the anxiety that I am experiencing doesn’t seem to mix well with peace. In fact, it seems that I am experiencing the opposite of peace. I pray for peace and a decrease in anxiety, and I feel a little better for a little while, but then the old fears and insecurities creep up, and I am back where I started. Do I not trust Him enough? Do I need more faith? I don’t think so.

We live in a fallen world, a world tainted by sin and the consequences thereof. The devil would love to paralyze us and keep us from doing what God has designed us to do. He would love to see us fail. However, we find our strength in the Almighty One. We have shelter under the wings of God. We are ambassadors for His kingdom. Nothing happens to us that God does not permit. He knows what we can handle, and He knows better than we do what is good for us. I think the answer to handling stress is to continue seeking God, to rest in Him, to shun the devil, and to press on even in the midst of trouble. My mother would say that trials produce character, quoting Romans 5:3-5.

I would add:

“What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Just as it is written ‘For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered sheep to be slaughtered.’

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

I’ve never experienced hardship like it is described in this passage. Perhaps someday I will. Maybe this is the time that God is preparing me to deal with that tribulation. Perhaps now is the time to begin a study on the book of Romans.