Part 4 – “Peace”

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . . “

During my most painful times as a Hurting Mom, I longed for peace every minute of every day. My anxiety and fear took over every part of me, inside and out, and there were times I didn’t know how I could go on any longer. Waking up each day churning with a feeling dread was exhausting and prevented me from being productive or fully present with the other people in my life.

I spent a lot of time talking to God, but as months became years, I didn’t know how to pray anymore. It felt futile and I began to doubt that my prayers would ever be answered. I was getting angry with God. My prayers were always about what I wanted God to do in the life of my daughter. It was like I was instructing Him on how to take care of her and what He needed to do to fix her. After all, I had spent hour upon hour figuring out what needed to happen to make her turn around. Why wasn’t He listening to me?

Then, at one point, in a moment of complete exhaustion, I threw in the towel. I made the decision to let go of my daughter, to turn her completely over to Him, and I changed the way I prayed. Realizing that there was nothing I could do to fix or control her, I began to ask God to work in her life the way He wanted to and I asked Him to bring other people to light her way and point her to Him.
The other thing I began to ask Him for pretty much every hour, sometimes every minute, was peace for myself.

Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
It didn’t take long for me to realize that these words were absolutely true! When I decided to trust Him, God washed His perfect peace over me every single time I asked for it. Of course, there were times I would still take my focus off Him and put it back on my daughter, but that always ended up robbing me of the peace I had discovered. I knew I didn’t want to go back there and as I continued to earnestly pursue Him, I slowly began to experience true peace, the characteristic of peace mentioned in Galatians 5:22, the scripture that defines the Fruit of the Spirit. It’s the peace that we discover as we draw closer to and become more like Jesus.

Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

This kind of peace doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening around us. Jesus knew and acknowledged that we would have trouble in this world. But through Him we can have peace. It is peace that settles deep inside and outweighs the hard and painful things that we experience so that even in the middle of our pain and turmoil we can tap into it and find relief. It takes time and practice, but Jesus is faithful and He will replace our fear and anxiety with the peace that can only be found in him. It is available to everyone and He is waiting to help you experience the life he intends for you to have in Him.

by Cathy Taylor