A Quieted Soul Brings Peace

There are days when our capacity to go on is significantly diminished by our wantonness and frustration with life. Sometimes this feeling of deficiency can leave us with a certain sense of dread that seems to hover around us like a dark shadow. Somewhere, we feel, is a place, a thing, a desire fulfilled, that will bring us what we have been looking for. We know it's there, but it just seems out of reach.

There is this other possibility though, that when considered, could alleviate this dissatisfaction.

It's called peace. Proverbs 14:30 states: "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

Peace is a quiet state of tranquility that once attained never wants to be lost again. It is a state of rest that we may enter into when we become confidently and consciously aware of the presence of God and His love with us, in us and through us. But if we are not aware of this perfect love working for our good, then we will be left with our fears, our yearnings and life will remain a very dark, bleak place to us.

Hebrews 5:7 describes how Jesus shrank from the horrors of separation of the bright presence of the Father. He called separation from God horrific, terrifying and dreadful. Jesus never allowed Himself to be separated from God, in fact the only time they were ever separated was on the cross when God forsook Jesus. Jesus only said what the Father said and He only did what the Father told Him to do.

We can therefore conclude that our lack of peace and contentment is a direct result of some sort of separation from God. Where is it in your life that you feel discontented with? Is it your career, your marriage, your health? Do you envy someone else's life, why? What is it that you think they have that seems to be out of reach to you? Why do you believe that God's intentions toward you are not good?

If God's love wants my good, then my goal becomes to understand this love so intimately that whatever is happening in my life, I look for Him and I ask myself: " If I believe that God cares about this (fill in the blank), then how would I see this situation differently?" What would I believe, what would it look like, smell like, taste like, feel like, sound like?

Are you getting a different picture? Now, if I can then begin to surrender that which I imagine to Him and believe that God is actively working at loving me and helping me in whatever situation I am currently dissatisfied with, there is a good chance that peace will return, my soul will be quieted, and I will then have the capacity to go on, confidently aware of God's perfect love working in my life.

Today remember Hebrews 10:23, "So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word."

Be at peace today confident in the knowledge that God's love is actively working in your life to give you life and life more abundant.

-Christina Samyan, MSW, LCSW