The Protection of Peace

A word that I’ve noticed coming up a lot lately, especially with the Christmas season upon us, is peace.

As this word peace keeps coming up, I’ve been thinking a lot about it. As Philippians 4:7 and many other verses in the Bible tell us, peace is something that we always have access to and it is something that God desires us to have!

As I read the verse above a few days ago, what stood out to me was that the peace of God will “guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus.” Peace is not just something we can “have”, it is something that we NEED! Peace is something God gives us as a guard to protect our heart and our mind from anything happening around or in us!

While that did impact me and make me realize the importance of peace, it still seemed like a pretty abstract idea until I was reading about Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3 this morning and that’s what I’d like to share with you today.

Exodus 3, starts with Moses taking his father-in-law’s flocks far out into the wilderness. While he is tending to the flocks, he sees a blazing fire in a bush and is amazed to see that even though the bush is on fire, it is not burning up! He stares at it in utter amazement and decides that he HAS to go and investigate because it’s such an amazing, inexplicable event. As he walks towards the bush the Lord (who is in the burning bush) sees him coming and calls out to him saying, “Moses! Moses!”. Moses replies, “Here I am!” and I wonder if, at this point, Moses is thinking he’s completely lost his marbles…or if he is dehydrated and seeing things!! God goes on to tell Moses His plan to deliver His people, the Israelites from Egypt and he gives the full details of how He will do this, by using Moses.

As I was thinking about peace and it being protection, I had many thoughts running through my mind that I’d like to layout. First, I thought it was profound that Moses had this incredible encounter with God, but in order for it to happen, he had to be in a space where God to speak to Him AND where he could hear Him. So as it states, Moses went far out into the wilderness, and part of me wonders if he was drawing himself away in solitude in order to have an encounter with God. Obviously, that’s something we may never know, but I do believe that to hear from God we need to position ourselves to be able to hear, which partly involves going out into the “wilderness” or quiet, away from the world and busyness of life.

The second thing that I thought of was the burning bush and how it can represent our lives. I love the fact that God himself, as the text states, was IN the blazing fire! Often, I think our lives can feel like a dumpster fire when we’re having bad days or facing hard times, but how beautiful a picture to know that God is still with us amidst our trials. He is right there with us in the fire. But even more than that, our lives or “fires” should be something that people are drawn to, just as Moses was so drawn to the burning bush…

People should look at our lives and be drawn to us. They should WANT to come and see how we can live with such peace, despite what we are going through. As my pastor always says, our lives should look so different, that people HAVE to ask what makes the difference. So that is the beauty of our stories and testimonies. God uses the hard things we go through to draw others to Himself, just as He drew Moses in.

So, I’m left to thinking, what a beautiful picture this story is of the peace that God desires for us and of HOW we can access that peace. We must seek after God, look for Him, pray, and diligently or intentionally go into the quiet. Then, He will make His presence known and we can be at peace, knowing that He is with us through all things. He will lead us, guide us, and give us direction, encouragement, or whatever we need, just as He did with Moses.

May peace be something that we carry with us not just this holiday season, but throughout the entire year…When times are good and when times get tough. When there are things to celebrate and when there are things to grieve. Let God’s peace and His presence be your protection. Rather than being consumed by anxiety and worry, pray for God to fill you with His peace and to protect you and remind you that His peace is something you can have, no matter what is going on, because true peace is found in trusting God and knowing He is in control of ALL things and with you at ALL times.