Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – I am not guaranteed a free pass from trouble and sorrow, this is not the promise of scripture, in actual fact I am promised that I will walk through sorrow and trouble. The question is how do I walk? Where do I turn, what is my coping, or my triumphing mechanism, when these times inevitably come to share my journey? Where is my peace and rest in these storms, where is my hope and overcoming?
John 16:33 TPT
[33] And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”
Observation
Walking with Jesus is walking in peace and rest in him. But it’s peace and rest that walks through trouble and sorrows, it’s not peace and rest because all is peaceful and restful. It’s peace and rest in the face of challenges. This peace is not circumstantial it’s founded in courage and based in Jesus victory over the world. It’s not peace because the world is a peaceful place, it comes from Jesus himself, it is his peace, it’s not a personally manufactured peace, it’s a peace that is His that flows into me from the intimacy of being with Him. And it flows in the courage that rises in knowing that the trouble you experience in the now has no comparison and cannot rob the incredible future in the fullness of His victory.
There is very little rest and peace in this world. So many of us struggle with anxiety, sorrow, depression, hopelessness. We have lost, we are uncertain, we are unsure, and so our circumstances drive us and our bodies break under the pain and trauma. We cannot manufacture the rest and peace that Jesus offers us. It’s not found in two weeks vacation, it’s not found in fleeing our circumstances, it’s not found in substances that numb. This is a peace that surpasses our understanding, it’s a rest that is deep and lasting. It’s a rest that is found in Jesus, not what he will do to alter our circumstances, but in His embrace, His intimacy, His whispers, His presence. And it instills in me great confidence, where I can face my circumstances with courage and hope.
Application
I will expect trouble and sorrow, Jesus is not protection against these coming, He is rest and peace in them. I will not be shaped by the what is going on, I will be shaped by His presence. The ‘what’ is cruel, random, unfair, traumatic, I can’t control it, I can’t understand it, can’t outrun in, so I need to know how to overcome it. And it is in rest and peace found in Jesus, there is really no other alternative, other than the depression and trauma of sacrificing myself to my circumstances brutality. I will not live here, when rest and peace are offered me.
Response
Thank you that you do not rescue me from the world but in the world. You give me victory to walk in its troubles and sorrows, not a hall pass from them. Thank you for rest and peace that I don’t manufacture but I survive and triumph in through you. Thank you for confidence to walk through the turmoil confidently in you. This is a blessed life.
Meditation
Meditate – the peace which is in me will be in you.
Consider:
In the turmoil of life where do you turn?
Do you turn from God when trouble and sorrow of the brokenness of the world visit your door?
JOURNEY DEEPER
