Peace!

Yesterday I experienced something that I often hear about but don't seem to find happening to me very much.  And it was wonderful.

I sat in my car at lunch time and was just finishing up doing some studying on Mark for our Sunday morning study and as I sat I found myself curled up in peace.  Inside and outside of me felt a calm quiet contentedness.  The traffic was rushing by on the busy road our building is located on, horns blaring, people talking in the parking lot...there was certainly no lack of noise and activity.  This was no tranquil mountain top I was surrounded by!!  But I was enveloped in peace.  I felt comfortable, happy and at rest.

It happened again later as I sat on the bench waiting to clock out for the end of shift.  I sat in the warm sunshine, listening to one little bird worship the Creator with his song, and there it was, the peace.

I say this is unusual for me because I am one of those people who always has something going on in their head....a million things at once it seems.  (I also lean towards impatience, and sometimes get frustrated easily)  So to sit in the lap of peacefulness was a remarkable experience.  It wasn't as if it came in all of a sudden...like a flood as I hear some say.  No, I just sat there for a moment, contemplating a bit of Scripture I have trouble understanding, and it seemed to seep in, falling over me like gentle snow covering the landscape...I felt wrapped in a soft, cuddly blanket.

I was and am so grateful for these moments of peace.  And I realized that the Lord wants this for me everyday, every minute. And this all lines us with some teaching I've been listening to in my Joyce Meyer podcasts lately...God;s name Jehovah Shalom...God is peace.  The verse she shared came to mind, and I am going to use the Amplified Bible as  she does (usually I don't because I literally get lost in that translation!  LOL)   1Peter  3:11  Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]   It's not always just going to fall upon me, I have to seek and search for it and then hang onto it with all my strength.  God gives the gift of peace...but I can choose to let it slip away by letting the cares of this world, the agitations and fears crowd it out.

John 14:27   “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

John 16:33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Lord, even as I sit here now, there are things clamoring in my head...the to do lists, the needs of others, all vying for my attention, all threatening to crowd out peace.  My emotions are already rising up, help me to hang on to the peace.  Help me to hang on to You.  That is where I want to live.   I pray this for myself, and all who are reading this.  In Jesus name, amen.