I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind
and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be
troubled or afraid. John 14:27 NLT
I turned the
ignition. Nothing.
Driving a
sixteen-year-old car with 260,000 miles on the motor makes every day a new
experience. In five years, we’ve only spent $600 on repairs, so I don’t
complain. Still, I don’t have a whole lot of peace of mind when driving it.
The timing was
bad when it decided to quit. I had just resigned one of my jobs. The remaining one
wouldn’t pay our bills. Due to health issues, my wife couldn’t work. On my next
to the last day at my place of employment, I drove up to the building, switched
off the car’s ignition, went inside, turned on the heat, and walked back to the
car. When I turned the ignition, nothing happened.
Great, I thought. This is
really bad timing. My wife had busied herself selling some of our
belongings on Facebook, hoping for enough to help us live until another door
for income opened. Now, we’d have to use that money for repairs. I wondered why
the Lord couldn’t have let the car run a little longer.
A fellow church
member drove up, and I asked him to help me jump the car off, thinking the battery
was dead. No such luck. We called a friend whose dad owns a towing service. He
came, and left with my car and sixty-five dollars. A call to the mechanic the
next day brought the unwelcome news that the repairs would be two hundred
dollars.
Jesus says He
gives His followers a gift such as we can’t find in the world: peace of mind
and heart. But when the bank account is empty, when you can’t pay the rent,
when you don’t know how to pay the other bills, or when your vehicle breaks
down on top of everything else, peace seems to fly out the window.
The amazing thing
is that the peace remains in spite of circumstances. That’s because God nestles
it deeply in our hearts—and because it doesn’t depend on the nature of our
circumstances. We live by faith, which can’t co-exist with fear. If fear is in
our hearts, God didn’t put it there. He brings peace when we put our trust in
His control, timing, wisdom, and strength.
Don’t let
circumstances drive out God’s peace. Remember, He loves you and has your best
interests at heart.
Prayer: Father,
we trust You to care for our needs.
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There are times when things go wrong and I get frustrated and upset. Other times when things go wrong, I remember to pray and ask for His help. When I take my worries to Him, a peace that only He can provide covers me. :-)
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