Each new year, I am nudged (more like kicked in the rear) by God to choose a word for myself that I want Him to make me extra sensitive to. Something that I’ve been needing in my life that I either didn’t know that I needed OR that I’ve been too scared to ask for.
This year, in 2015, I think the word that He’s sent my way falls into BOTH of those categories.
In 2013, it was “generosity” -
In 2014, it was “positivity” -
Now in 2015, I’ve been called to have “peace” in my life.
In my journey to be positive this past year, I somehow let the chaos in, too. Whether it was through being too understanding or too lenient, I did too much or not enough of something. There some things I should have handled long before they got to the points they’re at now. I mean, even Jesus had his limits (Mark 11:15).
So, during my ‘end-of-the-year’ reflection, I asked God for the ONE thing that I needed in my life. Of course, being a human being — a human being that sins on the daily, I know I need more than just one thing, but my tiny brain can only process one life lesson at a time.
So looking back on the pacing of my life — the rhythms, the highs, the lows, everything — I felt a strong calling to the word PEACE.
“The biblical concept of peace is larger than that and rests heavily on the Hebrew root slm, which means "to be complete" or "to be sound." The verb conveys both a dynamic and a static meaning"to be complete or whole" or "to live well.” (Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Peace)
Peace seems impossible to be attained based on that definition. With the external chaos constantly threatening our internal quiet, how on earth does God expect us (i.e. me) to find peace?!
Well, for starters, the answer to that is NOT of this earth. He doesn’t expect me to find the peace within the confines of this world. My answer is and has always been through Him.
The [belief in the] death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is our pathway to peace.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14-16, NIV)
It’s such a powerful and overwhelming realization to know that peace has been there all along. He’s been waiting on me to claim it.
Ironically, when I was a young child, one of my favorite songs to sing in school was a hymn called “Peace is Flowing Like A River”.
I sang it in church, at school, at home. It was mainly because it was a catchy tune. But now… it couldn’t be more relevant to my life.
“Peace is flowing like a river
Flowing out of you and me
Flowing out into the desert
Setting all the captives free”
I never stopped to really think on what I was singing about, but this prophetic lyric means a LOT to me now. It’s telling me what peace has come to do. What GOD has come to do with that peace.
He’s setting me free of what I’ve trapped myself in — the chaos and the noise of the world, which we all get SO easily wrapped up in. He’s reminding me that we’re all captives by sin and that He sent His Son, Jesus, to rescue us! That He is that peace where looking for!
You know, as I sat down to write this, I didn’t even realize what the end would look like. It started with my asking God for peace to the complete realization that I’ve had it all along. Through Jesus Christ.
So, while my word for 2015 is and will continue to be PEACE, my process has changed. Instead of trying to attain that peace, I will instead work on maintaining that peace. Because I have it. I already have it. Because I have Jesus.
What greater peace is there?
- Christina Marie
