Where Peace is found. . .

The other night Erik was laying under our covers, and I was sitting straight up in bed with the sun on (as he says). The sun is the lamp beside our bed that I read by at night. We had just finished a long discussion about one of the thirty thousand things that were bothering me that particular night. He asked me why I wasn't going to sleep with him, and I said. . .

"I can't sleep! I need to find some peace!"

He laughed and said, "Do you think you're going to find it in that book?"

And, I said, "I don't know, but I hope so!"

And, you will never guess what happened next! I opened the Elisabeth Eliot book that my mom recently gave me. And, at the top of the page I opened were the words. . .

"To Find Peace. . ."

I laughed out loud and shared with my sweet sleepy husband the humor of our God!

I read that page and the next, and I was reminded of something so important!! Peace. It doesn't come from forgetting about what worries me. It doesn't come from working hard to make things right ~ or planning and believing some false illusion of control. It doesn't come from withdrawing and hiding ~ ceasing to live outward. It doesn't come form submitting to defeat ~ giving up. Do you know where we as Christians can rest in the peace of God. . .

In accepting.

As Amy Carmichael said in a poem, "In acceptance lieth peace."

Acceptance of God's will. Accepting whatever befalls, however it befalls us as the will of God. I love the word acquiesce. Acquiesce to His will.

Jesus poured his heart out to His father. He prayed that this cup be removed. But, God did not remove the cup, and Jesus drank deep of it. He accepted.

So, many things that I worry about I simply cannot change. I cannot do a single thing about them. So, why do I worry? Why not just open my arms wide before my God and accept what it is that I cannot change? Rather than fight, manipulate, think on, obsess over and attempt to change that which I am powerless to change.

Peace lieth in acceptance.

I love it, and I needed it that night as I was consumed with worries about the future, about things that today I cannot do anything about, and tomorrow they may not even happen!!! Silly me!! ;-)