Yesterday I shared something that I have been learning in life concerning Peace. I spoke of the fact that so many of us have grown up believing that Peace is more situational than it is a state of allowing Christ to work in us.  

My life growing up was so utterly filled with anxiety. Anxiety was as close to me as my skin, oddly enough…almost a “trusted friend” at points.  As long as I was feeling anxiety over a matter I felt I was somehow “prepared” for what life would throw my way.  But anxiety is a leach and after a while I became mentally anemic.  I had nothing more to give to anxiety. The slightest trouble would enter into my temporary peaceful state and I would fall to pieces over it.  I became desperate for a change within me.  Broken hearted, fear filled, and uncertain where Peace would take me I decided I afford nothing less but to step out and see where it led me.

When I stepped out, I started a very slow process of adapting my thinking to coincide with Peace filled thoughts rather than anxiety driven fear.  When trouble presented itself I started to question myself if I was viewing the difficulty through Perspective or through Fear.  This questions many times allowed me the moments I needed to collect myself and in order to remind myself that I wanted Peace more than I wanted anxiety.  Once I was calmer I would literally say out loud, “Perspective, Daniella, Perspective.  What is actually going on here? See the situation for what it is rather than what your anxiety wants to build it in to.”  Perspective rendered many situations powerfulness, and prompted me to see that the more that I started to see Peace for what it is, a doorway to the love that Jesus had for me, the more found that my stability is based in Jesus and all the power that He holds, not in situations.

I found that I needed to find ways to overcome the anxiety that sought to capture the first few minutes or hour prior to a difficulty presenting itself to me. 

It was here that I started learning to apply a series of small quotes. Scriptures from the Bible that reassured me that I was never beyond the Love of Christ. Quotes that empowered me to remember nothing is beyond the Lord’s control. Because many times, when difficult times present themselves to us, we lose start letting our trust that Jesus does honestly love us, or that God isn’t really going to hold up His statement that He never gives us more than we can handle.  Finding ways to quickly harness those insecure thoughts helps greatly in the battle to against anxiety.  We can control what we allow ourselves to “digest” as valid information and when we are start to feel the onset of thoughts that tells us that God stops loving us, we need to see those for the lie they are. But the longer you allow Peace to reign within your thoughts, the more you will find it is a trusted friend like none other.  The Lord Jesus Christ seeks to lift our heads.  It is in His eyes that we see the love that we’ve all been desperate to find and it is through his love that we will finally find a Peace so utterly irresistible that anything less becomes powerless against us.

I continue in my journey with the Lord daily. His love is slowly piecing together a heart that had never truly tasted Peace, but due to His patience with me…. I can’t imagine life without Peace now. It is a daily fight to keep my eyes more focused on the Peace of Christ than anything else presenting itself in my life, but I never again want to return to the grips of anxiety.   “He that has been set Free is Free indeed” (John 8:36)  May this be of a blessing to you, my friends.  Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella