DO PEACE AND BUSYNESS MIX?

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

This past Sunday, as we were on our way to church, my Dad happened to turn on a podcast discussion. They were talking about peace and what it should look like for Christians if we are truly living in peace. It was very interesting to me because as I look around at the world and culture we live in, I don’t see very much peace.

Everyone is so busy. We are always going somewhere to do something.

While those things are not in themselves bad, we elevate them on our priority list. What happens then, is we start to make those things more important than our time with Jesus, praying, and studying His Word.

My question to you is this; have you filled your life so full of stuff to do that you are constantly tired and feel like you are never at rest or feel at peace?

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Do you have time to just sit and be still before Jesus? Just to be in His presence with no distractions?

As they were talking about peace, I thought of one of my favorite quotes.

It’s by Elisabeth Elliot who once said, “One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business. When all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”

I think that a lot of us read that quote and cringe. We realize that there are some items on our agenda we know God didn’t place there, but instead that we signed up for. Is the item necessarily bad? No, not at all.

However, it may not be what God wants you to be busy with.

I know that there have been times in my own life where God did not let me feel at rest with what I was choosing to do with my time; because that’s simply not what He had planned for me.

Listen guys, He gives us pretty clear hints.

If it’s not where your supposed to be, He will make it hard for you to do.  I think He’s hoping we will get the hint, that maybe our choice is not a part of His will.

No wonder we are always running everywhere, and we don’t have peace. We are trying to do all of those things because WE want to.

Isaiah 26:12 says, “Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.”

Jesus wants us to live in peace. He doesn’t want us to be so busy with other things that we miss out on spending time with Him.

You see, peace actually comes from spending intimate time with our Savior. It comes from living in His presence.

I want to challenge you with this… Are you busy doing the things that the Lord has told you to do in your quiet times with Him? Or are you busy with the things the world says you should spend your life doing?

It’s a very big question that we must ask ourselves so that we don’t spend our whole lives doing stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Corrie Ten Boom once said, “In the center of a hurricane there is absolute peace and quiet. There is no safer place than in the center of the will of God.”

SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= What is one thing that you may need to give up in order to do what God is calling you to?

= Is this topic of busyness and peace something you struggle with?

= What has Jesus been teaching you lately?