S P E A K I N G S H A L O M T O Y O U R S O U L : Clearing Your Path to Peace in the Middle of Chaos

Our everyday lives have the ability to overwhelm, overtake and distract us from the peace Jesus desperately wants us to have.

With feelings of anger, stress and discontentment so readily available to us, it’s common to feel like peace, comfort and tranquility are just beyond our grasp.

But what if you didn’t have to go through life overtaken by these negative thoughts and feelings? That in a life full of chaos, His peace is already promised?

Peace is a quality that can characterize our inner world even while our outer world goes crazy.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The original Hebrew word for “still” in Psalm 46 depicts a physical position — it’s like letting your body go limp or relaxing the grip of your hand. It simply means we quiet ourselves by acknowledging He is God.

And then where does “shalom” come in? “Shalom” is a prayer that asks God to secure a person’s well-being. You can still and quiet your soul by speaking “shalom” to yourself. Our words are powerful — especially the words we say to ourselves.

But the path to peace can get really bumpy when it’s laced with life’s inevitable ups and downs. Especially when these major obstacles keep us from experiencing the peace Jesus promises us:

N E G A T I V I T Y . Your words and mindset can build either bridges or walls. A bridge will take you somewhere. A bridge allows for progress and opens the way to new vistas along your journey, even if you’re in the middle of the toughest journey of your life. The alternate mindset is to think of it as an obstacle or barrier — a wall. Walls block your view. They prevent you from traveling forward. That’s when they become prisons. Walls are hindrances to where we really want to be.

A N G E R . Being angry is exhausting. Trust me, I’ve had my moments of anger in the middle of a heated moment — just ask my husband about the time I kicked a hole in the wall! But your depression or rage won’t make the bad things go away. Bad things really do happen to good people, but evil won’t go away just because it makes you mad. When we allow anger to get in the way of our path, we wear ourselves out. And next thing we know, we’re utterly spent, lost on a detour from the way of peace.

O N E

T W O

S T U B B O R N N E S S . Letting go of your feelings may feel impossible, but my friend, it’s not impossible at all. Not with an all-powerful God in your corner! Guard yourself from the belief you can’t access His peace and consider that the real problem might be you just won’t. Being defiant and being disabled are vastly different. That’s hard truth, I know, but these are words I have spoken to my own soul before I started writing them to you.

The world needs the personal peace you can bring to it. But you can’t clutch anger or anxiety like carry-on baggage and expect to find peace. If you want peace to prevail in your life, it’s important to watch the warning signs on the path.

Asking yourself questions like: What is my mindset? Is it destructive or constructive? How do I deal with adversity? With anger or with acceptance? What do I say about defiance and letting go of anger? How much of my refusal to change hurtful ways starts with “I won’t” rather than “I can’t”?

I’ve put together a “Path to Peace” map to help you answer some of these questions about your own circumstances. Use it to pinpoint the roadblocks on your own path to peace as you lay all of your concerns at the feet of Jesus.

But before you do that, let’s pray.

Lord, thank You for making Your peace so readily available to us when we need it. Help us loosen our grips of the situations causing us anxiety, anger and discontentment so we can be still and know You have everything under control. I pray we would remember the weight of the words we tell ourselves; that those words would be full of Your truth and not

the lies that seek to mislead and destroy. Reveal to us our shortcomings but remind us of Your grace as we get rid of the obstacles keeping us from Your perfect peace.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

T H R E E

Copyright Jennifer Rothschild 2016. Taken from her book “Me, Myself, and Lies.” All Rights Reserved.

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