How to Have Peace in Our Lives

The world doesn't stop. Round and round it goes and we can get caught up in the never-ending cycle of wake, work, eat, sleep, repeat. 

We can look like ants, in a line, following blindly because we think this is what we are meant to do. Think I am wrong? Watch what traffic looks like at rush hour. 

I want us to take a moment and be still. God is in the quiet. 

When we take the time to turn off all the noise of the world something amazing happens. We can get in the presence of God and be renewed. We can be made stronger, more resilient, firmer in our faith and more focused for the tasks we have to do. 

This quiet time can be found by shutting off the TV, walking away from the computer, getting in a room alone, and worshiping. 

Psalms 100:4 says this: 

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 

In God’s presence there is peace and fullness of joy. 

Take your cares to Him. Bring your prayers, your pain, your hopes, your dreams. He wants it all. He wants your whole heart and your whole life, because He wants to make your life whole. 

Psalms 119:73-80 (MESSAGE) 

With your very own hands you formed me; now breathe your wisdom over me so I can understand you. When they see me waiting, expecting your Word, those who fear you will take heart and be glad. I can see now, God, that your decisions are right; your testing has taught me what's true and right. Oh, love me—and right now!—hold me tight! just the way you promised. Now comfort me so I can live, really live; your revelation is the tune I dance to. Let the fast-talking tricksters be exposed as frauds; they tried to sell me a bill of goods, but I kept my mind fixed on your counsel. Let those who fear you turn to me for evidence of your wise guidance. And let me live whole and holy, soul and body, so I can always walk with my head held high. 

Watch this video, listen to the words of the song. Ask God to breathe His peace onto you. Your world may continue to spin chaotic and you may feel stuck in a never-ending cycle, but God is with you. Do not be overwhelmed by the world, but let God’s peace overwhelm you and you can face anything. 

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Turn Down that Noise!

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

I am loud. Megaphone Loud! 

Ask anyone that knows me. I don’t need a microphone to talk to an audience of less than fifty.

I once got asked how much I got paid to be the laugh track for the church I attended, because during a service, if the pastor was funny, I was sure to laugh: so loudly it would end up on the recording of the message. 

(For the record I never got paid, though perhaps I should look into that as a viable option of income generation since I am unemployed….LOL) 

So if you have been around me for any length of time, chances are you have told me to shush or heard someone else say shush to me. It is like I have a volume control knob that is broken. If I get excited, the volume goes up. If I get upset, the volume goes up. 

In some ways I have harnessed the volume. For the longest time I was a “yeller” when I disciplined my kids, and that never really got me anywhere with them. 

The noise was like a wall, with them on one side and me on the other: going nowhere, banging our heads and our hearts until we were bruised from the effort. Yelling kept me from parenting my kids and it kept them from hearing me. 

One day, instead of yelling, I began whispering to them when I was angry. It made my kids stand still, shocked, and riveted to every word. Because I was quieter, they had to listen with purpose to what I had to say. I continue to do it now, and they are teens. 

Once I was sharing this with a friend who was having some issues with her daughter, and my oldest, Sarah, happened to be with us. She shared with this mother the reason it worked so well, 

“When mom stopped yelling, she started hearing us and we began to see her. It scared me at first, because it was so different, but now I am used to it.” 

Does this mean my kids always listen to me? Not at all: they are kids after all! But this is taught me something about God and about me. 

I will never be an understated, low-key kind of person. God did not make me that way. I can however, be quiet. I can be still. God has been talking to me for a long time. He is talking to you too. He talks in whispers, but so often we are so noisy we cannot hear what He is saying! 

Noise causes miss-communication, mishearing, or even worse, no communication and no hearing. Noise has even been used as a weapon, and a form of torture. The noise of life, the pressures of work, and the stress of raising a family, all of this can be noise. 

Your own voice, like mine, can be noise. What happens if we turn down the volume of all of that, and listened for God? What would we hear? What would change? 

So I am turning down the volume of my life for the next two days. I am fasting my words. 

No talking, no singing, no noise from my mouth from today until Sunday morning, when I wake. When I want to yell and scream, as I am sure I probably will - I do after all have two teens in this house - I will pray. I will read the Word, and I will get by myself and listen with purpose to God. 

If you know me, you know this is going to be a challenge. I am up for it. 

I know God will use this time to unclog my ears and my heart. I want to be still, amazed at what I hear, riveted to every word. 

Jesus said his sheep know his voice. God said be still and know I am God. Jesus said, he that has an ear, let him hear what God is saying. 

So I am closing my mouth and praying that as God speaks I will hear Him. 

Question: Have you ever done a non-traditional fast before? If so, what did you learn? 

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that listen is a verb.