Our Peace Proves What We Preach

Quote of the Day - “Our peace proves what we preach. When we rest in God, our people learn they can too.” ~ ray mileur

Perhaps one of the highest compliments Anne and I have received came again this past Sunday when someone said to us, “There is so much peace when you show up.”

Those words stayed with me.

And I want Anne and I to always remember something about them: the peace people may sense when we walk into a room is not something we manufacture. It isn’t because we have life figured out, because everything is going well, or because we somehow carry fewer burdens than everyone else.

That peace comes from the One who walks with us.

There’s a kind of peace the world talks about — the kind that comes when the problems go away, the bills are paid, the family is doing well, and everything seems to be falling into place.

But that kind of peace is fragile. It can disappear with one phone call, one diagnosis, one disappointment, or one unexpected turn in the road.

The peace God gives is different.

Paul writes:

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” — 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Notice what Paul doesn’t promise.

He doesn’t promise easy days.

He doesn’t promise smooth roads.

He doesn’t promise that every prayer will be answered the way we hoped.

He promises the Lord Himself.

That is where our peace comes from.

Peace isn’t found in controlling everything around us. It is found in knowing Who is with us in the middle of it.

And over the years, Anne and I have walked through enough storms to know the difference.

We have had our share of heartache, uncertainty, disappointment, grief, and prayers that seemed to hang unanswered in the air. Yet through it all, God has been faithful. Not because He removed every storm, but because He walked with us through them.

Maybe that is what people sense.

Not our strength.

Not our ability to keep everything together.

But the presence of the One who has held us together.

And that matters especially within our own family.

Our children and grandchildren will hear what we say about faith, but they will also watch how we live when life becomes difficult. They will see whether the God we speak about on Sunday is the same God we trust on Monday when the phone rings with bad news.

That’s why I wrote:

“Our peace proves what we preach. When we rest in God, our people learn they can too.”

A steady heart in a storm becomes a testimony.

Not a testimony that we are strong, but that He is faithful.

So when someone tells Anne and me, “There is so much peace when you show up,” I receive that as one of the greatest compliments anyone could give us.

But I also know where the credit belongs.

If you sense peace when we walk into the room, it is because Someone else walked in with us.

Jesus.

And my prayer is that wherever we go, people will sense less of us and more of Him.