The Life You Were Reborn to Live has recently turned one year old, and I’ve heard which teachings have impacted people most. In a world filled with anxiety and restlessness, the chapter on peace in particular has encouraged many hearts, so I’m going to take two weeks and share the chapter with you here.
If you connect with its message, I think you’ll enjoy the entire book, which you can order here The Life You Were Reborn to Live. And hey, Christmas isn’t that far away! Perhaps you know someone who might be blessed by this message. Books make relatively cheap gifts these days, and they are easy to send if your loved one doesn’t live nearby.
Dismantle Restlessness
The Peace that Passes All Understanding
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times, and in every way.”
2 Thessalonians 3:10
Like many people my age, our friends are asking, “So what’s your number?” That’s the amount you’re hoping to have saved before retirement (which I don’t plan on participating in anyway). So you do what you’re supposed to do and put money away instead of spending it all, slowly climb toward that number, and then a bad economic year happens to the entire country as it did to most of us some years ago, and thirty to forty percent of “your number” just disappears.
Poof. It’s gone.
Don’t ever add up what you could have purchased (the vacations, the new cars, the house additions) with that money. You’ll just torture yourself.
Some friends of ours had millions. It’s a long story, but now paying rent (they had to sell their home) is a monthly struggle. The wife told me Psalm 23:1 builds her up when money collectors tear her down: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.” She won’t avoid lack because they’ve hit their number. She won’t avoid lack because she and her husband are clever businesspeople who can earn it all back again. They won’t avoid lack because they have a huge inheritance coming (they don’t). They’ll lack nothing because God is their Shepherd and that will never change.
Peace is a person. It’s not possessions, or health, or acclaim. It’s putting your security in a person and recognizing that if you have Him, you already have “enough.” Even if you lose it all, if nobody notices you, if the world around you collapses, you already have everything you need.
Peace is so much better than money, acclaim, or even favor with your loved ones.
After that really bad investment year, I exchanged anxiety for peace. I already have something much better than my “number.” I have peace in God.
God desires all His children to experience deep, soul-refreshing peace. He grieves that you allow anxiety to pollute your thoughts and ruin your days. Has anxiety ever served you? Even once? Psalm 23:1 isn’t just about money. It’s about relationships. It’s about fulfillment. It’s about your loved ones. It’s about everything you need. “I shall lack nothing.”
When God’s peace washes over me and I know that I don’t need anyone else’s approval; I don’t need my loved ones to make the decisions I want them to make to follow God; I don’t need to perform to secure a happy eternity; I don’t need a book to sell a certain number of copies. I don’t need anything that I don’t already have—it’s like losing fifty spiritual pounds. It’s amazing!
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