You slide into a comfy chair with your favorite book, all is quiet, your loved ones are in good places physically, spiritually and mentally and you feel that sense of peace. But the thing is; it doesn't last long. You hear your toddler yell "mama" from the other room, your teen comes and shares some tough stuff they are dealing with and you feel the tension rise again. We all long for peace, yet it can seem so illusive; especially in the times we are living now. See, lately I've been fighting for some peace. I'm an introvert who loves routine and not much about our lives lately has been routine. With two kids working, school schedules, a family member needing a medical procedure (that is looking like it might be delayed for a second time); it all just feels yucky and unsettled.
I mentioned in my last post that I had gone away for a ladies retreat a few weeks ago. One of the things God impressed on my heart was that I have been looking around a whole lot more than I have been looking up. I love to read, I usually have at least two books at a time that I'm reading (as well as my daily Bible reading). Reading is something that I have always loved. Usually, my books are a nonfiction memoir and a Christian study book. There are so many wonderful books, but here's the thing. Many of those books are testimony books. They share how God stepped into the life of the author and taught them a lesson. The author is sharing about a time or mess that God brought them through. These books are awesome and great to read; however, sometimes we need more. In these testimonies we are still looking around; around at how God has worked in lives and while we can learn a lot from that, the authority and focus we truly need can only be found by studying Scripture. I'm always thankful when I find out one of these books come with a study guide that digs into the Scripture; that is where true transformation, growth and peace is found.
This year in our Mom's Night Out group at church we are reading through the book Jesus Over Everything by Lisa Whittle. I read this book last summer on my own and it was powerful. This time I decided to go a bit further since I had already read the book and grabbed the study guide as well (this goes with a DVD series but I'm just using it a bit different without the DVD's). At the end of each day she has you read a passage of Scripture and dig deeper by looking up a key word in a concordance to learn more about what the passage is saying. (I'm going to digress a bit here to say that my favorite Bible study tool is actually a Lexicon. I love that you can look at the original Greek and see what the word means there; it often gives a much fuller understanding and that is just what happened the other day.)
One of the passages that Lisa had us look at was Philippians 4:4-9 and in particular the word peace. In the Greek, the word used for peace in this passage is εἰρήνη (eirēnē); the meanings listed are: "one, peace, quietness, rest". The definition "one" caught my attention; further down in the definition it fleshes this out a bit more as meaning, "wholeness, when all essential parts are joined together". You see, we can only have true peace when we are one with Christ, He is the essential part we need to be joined to, in order to be truly whole. Our focus should be on striving for oneness with Christ no matter what the circumstance. When we focus on Christ and put Him as our priority (as Lisa says "Jesus Over Everything") then we find peace that will last. We look up rather than around. Another verse that uses this same Greek word for peace is Romans 15:13 and it is my prayer for you today "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace [rest, quietness, wholeness] in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
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