When Peace Like a River Doesn't Attend My Way...

The song, "It Is Well with My Soul," starts by saying the words, "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul." So many people know that song by heart but I wonder if they know it with heart.

Let me ask you, what gets you down? What draws out your worries and fears? Does the future scare you? Does a coming doctor visit or dying loved one or some financial obligation dominate the thoughts of your life? Maybe there's an ongoing fall-out between you and someone you know, maybe someone you love greatly. God has been doing amazing things in my life lately, and sometimes I struggle with voicing what He's doing. He really got a hold of my wife today and addressed these very issues, which we both have concern for. We're financially strapped, seeking God's will, jobless, uncertain about what the next day holds, all of that stuff.

Anyone can find things to worry about from their little point on the map. It doesn't matter have all the riches in the world and a huge network of friends, or if they're staying the night tonight in a homeless shelter somewhere, going on perhaps twenty, thirty, maybe forty years of second-hand clothes and half-rate meals. Worry has nothing to do with where you are in life. Yes, I said it, and it is true. Let me say it again. Worry has nothing to do with where you are in life. Third time? Worry has nothing to do with where you are in life.

Horatio Spafford wrote those words following the loss of many of his immediate family. What would crush so many people, even many Christians, didn't overcome this man. Why? Oh, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, it would be hard to understand. You see, Jesus doesn't just save people from an eternity in hell. It's not an insurance claim that we buy into--and sadly, I think a lot of people did just that thinking that was that. God wants to lead us into a deep relationship with Him--I think being saved from hell is so far from where He wants to go with His children. Hell's a big reason to trust in Christ, but in some ways I think it is minute once that issue is taken care of for a person as they place their faith in Him.

Nevertheless, I was speaking about peace. You know, when you spend time with God, deep and rich time, that is, you find those worries of life being choked out by thoughts of God (thanks again for showing me your devo book today, Ann).

The antidote to worry and fear and doubt and uncertainty as a believer is to spend the vast amount of your time with God in your mind. Read your Bible. Pray daily and pray exhaustively, and pray as things come to mind. Reach out to hurting people and show them God's love. Show them a difference in this world, too. Christians are far more than moral people, aren't they? Aren't they!? They're far more than church-goers in religious social clubs, right? Return to Him if you've been walking away from Him. Just go to your Bible, pray, worship, get on your face on the ground and just cry before Him. Be honest with Him and with yourself about how you've been living. Don't just pray, "thanks for the food and help my uncle with his doctor's visit this week." Don't you have more feelings about things than that?? Don't you have more going on in your mind than some cold, polished prayer request to break out for the day, or week, or who knows how long ago?

People, listen, God wants you to treat Him in a personal way, not with distance and religiosity. Go before Him in the depth of your heart and pour it out. Watch your worries go away. Will problems cease? No, but you'll be able to look them in the face and not lose hope or grow restless. God is in control. John MacArthur once said, "Assurance is a gift of the Holy Spirit to those who are obedient." Having gone through so much of the Bible, I find myself echoing those words because the doubts about God's love and presence and the promises of peace and joy and hope seem to go out the window when I abandon living like God would want me to.

Today, be open minded to God, just ask Him to lead you in what you do, but don't be so foolish as to stay out of His word or not to pray. If nothing else, pray for Him to have His way with you and be open to what He does. You'll find that those prayers you've been known to pray don't necessarily have to be fulfilled in your ways if you love His ways more than your own. I can pray for health and answers to my problems and such, but you'll be doing very well if you can get to the point where you rejoice more in God's answers than your desired outcomes.

I honestly believe that God has us live in faith far more for the benefit of learning to trust Him than to obtain the answers. Make God the focal point of your mind and the King of your heart. There's nothing more hopeless than when peace, like a river, doesn't attend my way. Let God step in and change that. What happens to you may not change, but who you are in the midst of all that life throws at you will change.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 4:6-7)