Choosing Peace

I promised I would write more about Bible study but felt pretty nauseous the last couple of days.

The room where we meet is decorated each week in girly colors with pretty tablecloths and table arrangements. This week at each place setting was also a note card. After the topic of prayer, each of us was asked to meet with the ladies at our table and give prayer requests.

Honestly, since I am so new here and would prefer to be private about these health issues that keep creeping up, I was tempted –really tempted—to keep quiet. After all I have so many of you lifting me to the Father. But I didn’t. When my turn came, I simply stated the facts, as I know them now and asked for prayer.

A dear lady from the opposite side of the table stood up and said, “Amy, I think that we should lay hands on you, right now and ask for healing.” She came over put her hands on my shoulders and had a conversation with God, that was both sincere and comfortable—meaning it was obvious that she speaks to Him often.

So my week ended as it began; in prayer. I have had precious friends call and pray with me. I have received emails of encouragement. I have been tempted to anxiety—but then I remember you and know that you are praying for me and choose peace.

Looking back over the last few years, I’m tempted to believe that the absence of difficulty would bring peace, but according to the Bible that’s not so. All That Really Matters, a book that I love and have quoted from several times by Sheila Walsh has this to say: "In the Old and New Testaments, God's peace is seen as a gift not to those who are fearless but to those who tremble with fear, wondering if they will survive."

When the disciples huddled together like wounded birds in an upper room after the crucifixion, they were sick at heart. Jesus, their one and only hope on this earth, had been butchered before their eyes, and they were terrified and hopeless. Cutting through that cloak of despair, Jesus stood before them and said, 'peace be with you' (Luke 24:36). Nothing outside the room had changed but because Jesus was there, everything had changed. It is the presence of God, not the absence of trouble that brings peace."

"Circumstances have nothing to do with peace; God’s presence does."

Our Seth has a love-hate relationship with the car wash. He loves to talk about it but hates to drive through. As we started in yesterday, he started to tremble and called, "Hug Seth, mommy." Fortunately David was at the wheel, so I moved into the back seat. Seth reached over and clutched my arm across his body. We were still IN the car wash, but because he was holding on to me and I to him…he was at peace.

This week promises to be challenging. The dark clouds of an unknown future are on the horizon, and the winds of indecision are blowing strong. But Ms. Walsh goes on to say, "Peace is the prerogative of those who trust in God. The peace that he gives holds us through sunshine and storms of life because it’s not dependent on things going our way. It is wholly dependent on whose way we are on."

So, I am choosing to cling to Christ.

I need thee every hour,
most gracious Lord;
no tender voice like thine
can peace afford.

I need thee every hour;
stay thou nearby;
temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh.

I need thee every hour,
in joy or pain;
come quickly and abide,
or life is vain.


My testing begins tomorrow at 12:30 and will last several hours. I’m choosing peace.