Inviting Peace

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 Posted by Debbie Legg

Toward the end of 1999 my husband and I found ourselves in an unthinkable situation. While living in our first house in Fairfield, we bought a house on the other side of town. We soon realized we needed to add on to the new house, in addition to the remodel we had already planned. Then, on a Thursday in late November, my husband decided he was going to quit his secure 9-5 job to join his dad in the much more risky farming operation. Did I mention we still owned our first house, and would for another five months?

Two houses + one addition and remodel + no guarantee of any income for the first year = one enormous panic situation for me. As far as I was concerned, this read like the first chapter of “How to Declare Bankruptcy in Two Months or Less.”

I told my husband to not turn in his resignation until Monday. “I” was going to pray about it. I begged, “Lord, if this is what You want, You are going to have to give me Your peace, because right now I am so panicked I can’t see straight.”

I wrestled with God and myself quite a bit that weekend, but by Monday I had peace, the one “which transcends all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7) Common Sense says I should not have had any peace. It’s a good thing God’s ways are higher than Common Sense.

I had that Peace because I asked for it, and God gave it. “You do not have because you do not ask of God.” (James 4:2)

The Peace was a gift, but it was mine to accept or reject. I could have continued to panic and doubt (and some days I did), but when I (again) asked for His peace, He gave it.

What do you need peace about in your life? Maybe if you ask The Savior, born in Bethlehem into a world nearly void of peace, He will give it to you.