How to have more peace in my life
Is it possible to create more peace in our lives?
I would love for us to define peace.
For so many years I would have told you that I had peace. My house was in order.
Everything had a space.
Everything was clean and looked picture perfect.
Therefore I said to myself, “This is where your peace comes from. When everything is in order, then peace follows.”
The world will try to tell you that if you just declutter your home, your mental load, that peace will then come.
I want to propose to you that the peace Father has to give us is separate from anything we can do to achieve it.
I don’t want to suggest that we shouldn’t make efforts to tidy our home. In fact I wrote a little more in detail on tidying our homes in this post.
In Galatians 5:22-23 We read,” 22… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (long suffering), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Peace is defined as, “freedom from disturbance, tranquility”.
What does it mean to be free from disturbance?
Lean in with me,
In life we are going to have disturbances. Annoyances. Interruptions. Frustrations. Messy homes. Bank accounts that don’t always align with what we see as sufficient. Children who don’t always listen.
Meals that didn’t get cooked. Budgets that went awry. Friendships that didn’t last. Betrayal. Death. Loneliness.
How on earth do we remain at peace while everything around us feels like it’s falling apart?
What God has for us is not from this world.
The Mystery of peace:
I have often sat with The Lord and have inquired of Him. Trying to make sense of the mysteries.
How can one person go through so much turmoil and yet, Gods peace is evident in their lives?
Hear me, this doesn’t mean we never get scared, shaken. feel afraid, nervous about a situation, unsure.
What it does mean is that we run to Him who knows us by Name. When we go to the source, Our true King, we lean not on our own understanding.
We begin to trust in Him. As we trust in Him it is He who makes our paths straight. Who sends those friends to pour into us when we really needed them to.
When you get the call that you got the job you’ve been waiting for. Your child tells you they’re sorry for the way they treated you. The electric bill wasn’t as high as you thought it was going to be.
Your local grocery store was gifting peanut butter with the very bread you were already going to buy, ha, maybe this one is just me.
These moments are such a gift. The more I live, the more I see there truly is beauty all around us.
Father is always inviting us into His peace.
I want you to know peace.
The Peace that allows me to breathe.
The Peace that whispers, slow down. Catch your breath. I’m not in a hurry.
The Peace that is not bound by time or space.
Peace has a Name, His Name is Jesus.
He is The Prince of Peace.
When He speaks I am undone.
All of my striving ceases.
All of my clenched fists come open.
When I spiral He draws me back in.
Like a dance.
I’m His ballerina, twirling, dancing and sometimes, a lot of times, loose my footing, stumble and fall.
But He calls me up Higher.
Where the air is lighter, clearer.
In His Presence, there is fullness of joy.
No matter what today holds, stay rooted in Peace. The Prince of Peace.
The only way we can stay rooted in peace is if we stay tethered to The Source. Our life Giver, Our King. The Vine. Our Jesus.
Sister, apart from Him there is no peace.
Recently we had a follow up for one of my littles. We had some weird readings on a blood test.
Because of all of the hard we were walking through it felt like one more thing, one more thing to combat.
One more thing I needed to overcome.
I felt angry. Absolutely broken hearted over what I didn’t know, nor understood.
To top it off, I felt very dismissed by one of the Drs.
I sat with my husband and poured out my heart.
Expressed my frustrations with us not having had an actual appointment with this Dr, no examination.
He only viewed medical records, didn’t ask questions, only made an assumption that was not accurate.
It caused disappointment and fear. How do I speak up in honor? How do I advocate for my child?
I shared my concerns, read, I wept and spiraled on the verge of panic.
Among his responses were these words, “Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself, to get it right, to have it figured out?”
In that single moment the lie I had been carrying around came to the front of the room, loud and clear,
“No one cares as much as I do. I have to work over time because no one is going to care as much as I do, not even God.”
Its a sobering reality. This world we live in. Physical and invisible.
We live in two realities.
Both sitting in Heavenly places where Christ is, I won’t pretend to understand but I believe by Faith that His Word is true.
And we live in this very broken world where the prince and ruler of the air has his way.
Yet, I believe Gods Word to be true. Living in this world makes us vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.
However, sister, and lean in close, John 10:27, tells us, my sheep hear/listen to my voice, and I know them, they follow me…
When we spend time with Father we grow to recognize His voice.
The lies that used to take years to identify now reveal themselves almost as quickly as I speak them.
We continue to train our spiritual senses. We continue to walk in wisdom and obedience to Our God.
Our God is faithful sister. Even when life doesn’t make sense. we can trust His goodness and provision.
The Lord does care:
Weeks later I would sit across another Dr. from the same team of specialist, I would tell him respectfully, “I don’t agree with your colleagues observations.”
He would draw me close as I asked him to please help me understand the test results, and the way the information is gathered.
After giving her a thorough evaluation and reviewing the numbers.
He said to me, “Mama this is not for you to carry, she is perfectly fine.
The reason the test read abnormal is because she is small. It measures on a scale, but the scale is not precise. We evaluate the whole person.”
The whole person.
I have been saying this for years. We must care for the whole person.
Some of us place so much emphasis on our physical appearance but neglect our spiritual walk.
Others of us focus so much on rearing children that we neglect to care for our own bodies.
The work we have been called to do is beautiful and Holy, sisters. We can trust that as we do what God has called us to, His peace will invade our chaos.
I cannot promise that He will remove the chaos. Sometimes it’s years before we see something different from our current reality.
However the more I walk with The Lord, the more I see, He is always inviting us higher.
Reminding me that just because everything isn’t in order, this doesn’t mean I can’t have peace.
That day, in the kitchen table, as I tried to make sense of the lack of care. I felt completely out of control. Fragile.
The only thing I truly have control over is how I respond to situations, and sister, I don’t always do this correctly.
Oh, please lean in, when I fail miserably.
When I fall back into patterns of fear, Father is right there. Like a soothing balm, He stretches out His hands to embrace me, you.
He knows, He understands better than anyone, our Savior King, just how difficult it is to fix our eyes on truth.
He leads us gently, reminding us, I am here. Listen for my voice, it’s usually the quietest in the room.
Sister, the weeds are still out of control and yet there is still beauty growing in the garden.
Slow as it may seem, He is not slow to keep His promises.
He is at work sister. Even when it doesn’t feel like He is.
I want to invite you to sit with The Lord this week. Praise Him for who He is. For the way He is holding you close during this trying time.
For the ways He has seen you through.
Our history with God is meant to tell a story. The story of a God who never stops loving His children. No matter how many times we mess up.
We don’t have to have life all figured out, it’s okay if all we can see is the step that is directly in front of us.
Take that one. As He leads. Grab His hand and lets trust Him together.
I truly do not hold all the answers. Sometimes our pain feels unbearable. On my own I cannot stand.
But together we can cry out to God, and trust that if He has seen us through before, He will see us through again.
Loving us. Showing us the way. Even while we are preparing meals for our families.
Here is another beautiful song that has blessed my heart tremendously this week. Especially as I gear up to co-lead worship with our school community this year.
I am no longer asking The Lord if He is sure this is what He has for me. This past year He has grown my vocal chords so much, through praise, sister.
Through saturating my walls with prayer, lament, worship.
My prayer for us this week is to cry out for God to be our vision.
Be Thou My Vision. by Audrey Assad
And because I love Steffany, Holy
Closing:
If this weeks blog post has blessed you, would you let me know in the comments? Would you also share with your people?
Your support, love and encouragement has been such a blessing to me.
Grateful for you. As always you can find me on Facebook here. I share sweet, short videos and sometimes funny moments from our days, but mostly inspiration for your everyday life.
Blessings and love as you continue to live the life He has called you to. Walking in obedience as best as you can.
We are loved sister.
Dig deeper:
Psalms 23, 24, John 10,
“All of my clenched fists come open.“ – this is something the lord has been teaching me. Open my hands, give it to him. Leave my plans and ideas at the door and give space for him to move.
Your words are soothing! They’re true & inspirational! Yessi if you have suggestions for how to get in the word daily I would love it. I’ve tried so many things but struggle to read the Bible. I get distracted / confused etc. I rely more on prayer and worship but I want to get into the word. I’ve tried the Bible app, study bibles etc but struggle. Would love your sweet advice!
Kayla I loved your message so much. I am so thankful for The Lords guidance in your life. How you’re leaning in to listen and obey.
I have been in prayer, seeing how to best answer your question.
I’ll answer more later, and this will likely be a post all on it’s own, maybe even a book one day, but for now I wanted to remove the pressure for you.
Goodness it is hard to focus sometimes, if you will think of scripture as nourishment to you! Because it is. The Lord Jesus said, “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
It is okay if you do not remember what you ate last Wednesday at 2pm. It still nourished your body.
It nourished your body and gave you what you needed, when you needed it!
The more you nourish your body the stronger your body gets.
The more you learn to listen to what your body needs. The better we respond and feed our bodies accordingly.
It’s similar to reading the scripture.
You may not remember what you read even 30 seconds after you did, but I can GUARANTEE that it nourished your body!
How? Because God says HIS WORD is ALIVE! It is active!
We don’t rely on ourselves but on The Holy Spirit of God.
The more you read His Word, the stronger your spirit grows and the more your flesh and soul will submit to Gods Word.
The more you will desire to read because your brain will see the beauty and benefit of sitting with Father. Our brains are always looking for patterns. Think neuroplasticity. The brain rewiring. Romans 12:1-2.
The pressure of doing it “right” now removed, we can learn to love Abba Father more fully, and receive His love and His ability to help us to sit and soak and receive from His Word.
The easier it will be to sit for longer periods of time.
Reading even whole books at a time.
Without the pressure of performance and if I don’t do this I am bad… those thought patterns that can keep us in shame sometimes.
I have never read the whole Bible, I maybe never will before I see Father face to face. I don’t know. Only He does.
But I have whole passages of scripture memorized, hidden in me, and when I pray for others Holy Spirit floods my mind with the scriptures I have already received into my being.
LIKE A STOREHOUSE!!!!
Keep filling the Temple with His Word!
Yes, it is a priority. But if you have a hard time, KNOW He knows you, He formed you, He will guide and direct you, sit with you. And help you!
Because He loves us! & Ultimately it is all a gift of His Spirit. It is all a gift that non should boast.
The psalms, John, Philippians are books I tend to stay in. Romans, 1 Chronicles. Seeing Christ in the old testament. Inquiring as I read. An open invitation from Father, come and sit with me. Ask me, I will show you things which you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3
Also HEARING, listening to The Word is so helpful! Reciting it back. Reading in different translations.
WRITE it down as you are reading it that will help His Word to be retained too!
The purpose is truly to draw near to God and to see HIM in His Word!!! To KNOW Him more so that we can make Him KNOWN🥰🥰🥰 and so that we might see ourselves rightly, through the lens of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Breathe, the pressure is off. It is a journey of joy and one year from now, you will be so astounded and grateful over all He shown you in His Word and how it has transformed your life.
And yes, even increased our capacity to sit still and remember. Sending you the biggest hugs! Cheering you on. Right here alongside you!
Keep running to Father. Love you big dear sister.
Yessi I love this eating analogy so much & read it a few times! It resonates& is SO GOOD! just hearing someone else say the pressure is removed feels good & I know that that’s what the lord is saying too. It’s how he feels about me, he doesn’t care about performance. How how it’s easy to get stuck in old ways of thinking but I’m thankful for a god who gives new mercy each morning! I’m thankful for you & this ministry you’ve started through your blogs. I love reading them!!
I love Steffany Gretzsinger’s song, Getting There. It is such a beautiful illustration of us learning to walk with Father. A journey of discovery. Treasures He has hidden for us in the pages of His Word. Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”
Think of it more like creating music, leaning in with the tension, every strum releasing a sound, the more we abide, the more that noise will go from just sound to a beautiful musical piece. The parallels are endless, because all of creation points us back to Him.
Are you familiar with the Fibonacci sequence? For weeks I sat in this incredible revelation, I still can’t get over this truth, proving the existence of God through math, can’t make this stuff up. It’s too amazing, He is too amazing. Father God has put eternity into our hearts. He has revealed Himself in all of creation. Formless until He gave life. He knows exactly how to speak to us, through His Word, through His Spirit, through His creation. Look for Him this week in your beautiful thrifting store. Invite Him in. To draw your eyes to the beauty He has for you this day.
& Always go back to His Word, His written word we confirm what we hear, we confirm and are not led astray. He’s faithful. Love you big Kayla! Let’s keep seeking Him together!