Season 4, Experiencing God's Peace Today
Oh hey, short on time? No worries! I'd love to join you on your commute or daily walk/run, or shoot, even while you take care of that to-do list. We can't let these things get in the way of this friendship. It's just starting to get good! Click below to listen to the blogcast.
If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into the thing that has them. - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
As I was praying over this next year of our time together, the one word the Lord continually pressed upon my heart was “peace.” I believe God wants to usher us into His peace this year. As C.S. Lewis so practically pointed out, if we want peace, we must get close to the source of peace, we must enter into the presence of peace. And, that, my friend, is what season 4 of The Good Day is all about.
We’ll talk about:
How do we experience God’s peace even when our circumstances are not peaceful?
How do we get close to the source of peace?
How do we enter into God’s peaceful presence?
Can we really experience peace from our worries and anxious thoughts?
How do we help our children do the same?
What does peace in friendship look like?
Can we know God’s peace in “the middle” of the struggle?
What does peace in parenthood, specifically motherhood, look like?
Unhurried peace, it’s a concept that feels foreign to many but available to all
What about peace to make a career move
Or, peace when we find ourselves on the path we would have never chosen
Is there such a thing as peace from comparison?
What about peace in immense grief and loss?
How can we become seekers and bestowers of peace?
Seekers and bestowers of peace, this has inspired the photocover of this episode. You see, Will and I are experiencing a new level of God's peace through life on the farm. Part of me is tempted to say, we never dreamed we'd have a farm, but that's not true. We dreamed we would, just never thought it would come this soon.
When we were dating, Will shared of how he starting baling hay for people to pay for college and he'd love to get to teach our kids one day how to do the same. So we knew one day this may come, but we never dreamed it would come so soon. But it did, and with flowers! So many flowers, I told my mom our first summer in the farm, I was excited about gardening but didn't want to be overwhelmed by it. It's as if God gave her the words from His heart to speak over me. She said, "Gardening won't be overwhelming for you. It will be a place of peace for you."
And how we see it is already so. It is a lot of work, but God's Spirit is here so beautifully and so tangibly in every simple and ordinary part of it all, and there is peace. Abundant peace. There is peace in the trees around us, peace in the hills before us, peace in the deer and rabbits who trot by, peace in the morning song of our unexpected neighbor, our rooster Hey, Hey.
Peace on the porch. Peace as I sit on the kitchen floor right now to read some of these words to Will as he daddles with the pots and pans. And of course, peace in the blooms.
I eagerly anticipate the blooms of Spring. Blooms my eyes have only seen in pictures. Blooms I will enjoy - peace I will know - because of my friend, Cecilia.
You see, we can plant peace - we can serve as bestowers of peace so others can experience a taste of heaven here on earth. And, we can serve as seekers of peace - learning to open our eyes and look upward to experience God's peace in new ways all around us. I believe this is God's heart for us this year.
For this reason, this season is packed full of rich stories of faith and I’m honored to introduce you to some beautiful people who are brave enough to invite us into their most personal journeys. It’s our hope and our prayer, you will come to know the source of peace, our Heavenly Father, in a deeper way in 2024 and because of this, you’ll embrace His peace, a treasure He has prepared for you today.
Jesus said,
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27
We don’t have access to a temporary, “it’ll do for now” peace. We have the peace of Christ. The peace, which overcame the flesh's desire to react in anger and create space instead brought Judas close while fully knowing the betrayal in his heart and in the moments to come. The peace, which overcame the flesh's desire to react out of fear and run away instead reached out to heal the ear of the Roman soldier who was falsely arresting him. The peace, which put the needs of you and I before his own, enduring the beatings and humiliation, the confusion and grief of his family and friends - the peace to surrender to an undeserved murder on a criminal's cross.
These are only a few, but throughout the New Testament, we see Jesus filled with supernatural - not of this world - peace to move forward in desperate and unfair and unwanted, grievous circumstances. And how miraculous! He chose to give us HIS peace!
…because He knew this world. He knew the anguish and the horror, the sorrow and the pain, the disappointment of life on earth, and He knew we would need His peace.
Jesus later said,
“…in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” - John 16:33
Now it’s up to us to choose to receive the peace He has for us today, one day at a time. Receiving this requires us to remain in Him while we live in the world.
Join me next week as we begin to discover how we live this out - how do we remain in Christ and have His peace while we live in the world?
I’m so humbled to invite you on this journey with me and so very thankful for how God has brought this season together. It is all His doing and I am merely the vessel. Let’s praise Him as we thank Him for all He is doing and yet to do in us this and around us this year:
Lord Jesus, we thank your peace. We thank you for this gift that we so desperately need on a daily basis. We thank you for the sacrifice you made to make this available to us, not one day in heaven but today - on earth as it is in heaven. We give you this day and ask you to lead us and guide us and help us abide more fully in you today. We love you and we live our lives to honor you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let's find strength as we choose each day to accept the invitation to live in the power of Christ. Let's find joy in the good, the hard and the ugly circumstances alike knowing our peace does not depend upon circumstances because we do not have to manufacture our peace, we have been given the peace of Christ. May we rest knowing this peace is a gift poured out from the heart of God, the heart of Love.
The good life, well it starts with a good day. Then another. Then another. Let's choose to live #TheGoodDay one day at a time.
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