Keep Calm and...

Feelings.  As a teenage girl, my feelings are like waves.  They go this way and that.  Sometimes I have still waters, but for the most of the time I have a raging sea.  Sometimes, my feelings don't make any sense.

Yet, around DBU, I keep hearing a phrase, "well, I had a peace about that" or "I don't have a peace about that."

This phrase used to kill me, because I was like "I don't have a peace about anything."

Yet, I was wrong, peace doesn't always change your feelings, yet it can be described in bible gateway's concordance as "the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is"

My heart can be pounding and I can be nervous yet I can still have a peace about something, because peace is not always feeling, but it is a state of the soul of the Christian.

A bible story to illustrate this, is the story of three men and the fiery furnace.

So King Nebuchadnezzar erected a gold statue and issued a decree that when the instruments played that everyone had to fall on their face and worship the statue.  When the trumpets sounded, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not bow down and worship the statue.  So, King Nebuchadnezzar angry gave them one more chance to bow down. To which they responded...

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

To which King Nebuchadnezzar responded by throwing them in the fiery furnace. He was so angry that he turned it up so high that the people throwing them in the furnace died.  

Yet, the King saw 4 men in there instead of 3 and they were walking around.  So the King summoned them to come out of the fire, and they were unharmed.  Then the king praised the one, true God. 

I love this story, but I just love how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego responded to King Nebuchadnezzar.  They had the peace of the Lord. 

They didn't know what was going to happen but they trusted in the Lord.  Now, I don't know but if I was being thrown into a fiery furnace I don't think, I would FEEL peaceful but these men, trusted in the Lord.  

A lot of times, God calls us to go outside our comfort zone to bring Him glory.  It is in these moments we must face our fears and we often don't feel very peaceful, but knowing God and trusting Him gives us the strength to make the decision. 

Now, peace sometimes can be a feeling.  Sometimes God chooses to bless us with a peace that allows us to feel okay, but that feeling comes from trusting God.  

Yet, if we trust God we can grow the seed of peace in our mind, so that in every circumstance and in every emotion we can bear the fruit of peace.