When you need peace…
Last week was a heavy one .
A family very dear to us lost their beloved husband and father. The loss left behind a beautiful wife with two radiant girls. He fought a long and hard battle with cancer.
Shortly after, we get the news that a friend of my daughter’s took his life in her dorm on her college campus.
The very next day, a young college girl out for a morning jog was brutally attacked and killed, on the same campus my daughter attends.
Jesus, be near. The only words I can think to mutter.
How are we to comprehend such loss?
We can’t.
This is the part of our faith where we have to let Jesus soothe and comfort us even as the questions swirl.
We fall into His arms. We cry. We grieve. We bury our heads into His chest and soak Him with our tears.
Our minds cannot comprehend.
My daughter came home from college soon after to escape the “eeriness’ as she described it on campus.
She cried herself to sleep two nights in a row, and insisted I sleep in the bed with her.
Her young teenage mind just cannot fathom the events.
How could she?
As she was crying her eyes out in that dark room, she asked me to pray Psalm 23 to her.
I did. Over and over.
She joined in and we felt the peace begin to wash over us.
God’s Word brings comfort.
God’s Word brings peace.
I had no words to comfort her. I only had the words of God
When we find ourselves in a state of fear, worry, sadness, grief, doubt, lack of understanding…
The place that has everything we need is God’s Word.
The reason I began reading the Bible was because I was so crippled in fear my whole life.
I was sick and tired of being anxious, fearful, and unable to enjoy even simple things.
Going to the grocery story was difficult for me. I would have panic attacks as soon as I walked through the doors.
I would drop my kids off at school and just bawl my eyes out on the way home. Fearful of something happening to them while they were away.
I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and shaking due to fear.
Many, many years I lived this way.
Until, I found God’s Word.
I started writing scriptures on small note cards and carrying them with me everywhere I went.
I taped them up everywhere around my house.
Slowly, my heart started beating to a different rhythm.
Each day became a little more bearable.
I was beginning to realize that I was forming a relationship with Jesus. He was speaking to me through His Word.
Each day I listened to Him, I memorized His Words, I clutched onto His peace.
I bought the Bible on CD, because it was before the days of having the bible app on our phones.
I played those CD’s in my house 24/7.
When my daughter was having night terrors when she was about 9 years old, I put a little CD player in her room with scripture lullabies playing.
She never had another night terror. EVER.
God’s Word is living and active and sharper than a double edged sword.
“ For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” Ephesians 4:12
When trouble comes, and it will…lean on the crutch of God’s Word. Devour it. Inhale it. Never leave home without it.
The Lord is my light and my salvation-
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life-
of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1
I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:4
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
This list goes on and on.
Cling to God’s Word.
God’s Word is the medicine we so desperately need.
Our greatest need is Jesus.
He can heal the biggest wounds.
Let Him soothe and comfort you.
He is near.
speak Lord,
jill
