Again, hear Jesus speaking:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jn 10:10 ESV
This thief, the evil one, is trying to steal our peace. I can remember every time Beckie would have one of those awful episodes, where she would go into seizures and lose consciousness, the first thing to go was my peace because panic would take hold of me. This is what our enemy wants because it would cause me not to be able to truly help Beckie. You see, when we are filled with dread and confusion and anxiety and fill in the blank, we cannot think clearly to make choices that will help the situation. Instead we begin questioning God’s Love and Grace. We begin pushing away from Christ because we are consumed with fear. We begin to wonder if we are all alone in life and the difficult situations we find ourselves in, not trusting that the Holy Spirit desires to guide us every step of the way. When we lose our peace, we lose our connection to God, and hard things just become that much harder.
But by God’s Grace, with each crisis Beckie endured, I learned to hold on to God tighter and tighter in the midst of the trial. Towards the end of her life, when she would have a crisis, my instinct had changed from panic to peace. I still did not know what would happen, but I learned to trust God no matter what. This helped me remain calm and make the choices that would help Beckie instead of add to her troubles. Even if the choice was simply to hold her hand, to sing to her to keep her at peace, or to look into her big beautiful brown eyes and tell her Jesus was with her, not allowing this real and really evil enemy steal my peace helped both of us stay connected with one another, as well as to God.
My Friends, whatever you are going through, know that this thief is going to attack your peace first. Don’t let him! Hold on to our Prince of Peace and trust Him with all you’ve got! Remember we fight against a defeated enemy…remind him too, by ignoring his tactics and staying peaceful.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
5- Jn 10:10
<>< Peace, Diane
