“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:7
From A Path Through Suffering by Ellisabeth Elliot
“After the death of my husband Jim, I returned to my jungle station. My Quichua friends were sympathetic, for they had loved Jim too. There was plenty of work to do, and I soon established new routines and was thankful for all the pressing duties that filled my days. Bags of mail began to come in bringing comfort and the assurance of prayers of hundreds of people, most of whom I did not know. I wrote to reassure my family and friends – I was all right, my baby Valerie was well, God was faithful- they need not be in anguish over the thought that I was “All by myself down there in the jungle.” But my mother-in-law wrote of her fears that I was perhaps repressing my grief and might eventually crack. This upset me, of course, and I wondered if she was right. She was a chiropractor and a keen observer of human nature, a wise woman whom I wanted to learn. But was there really no such things as the peace that passeth understanding? Was I only imagining I had been given it? Could God fulfill His Word or could’t He?”
I first read this paragraph in 2012. It was one of those paragraphs that stick with you. Ellisabeth Elliot experienced what Phil. 4:7 promised, and it bewildered her mother in law. The well intention-ed error of the mother in law was miss-interpretation. This is a common response in our over psychiatric world. We reject any kind of peace that we can’t understand in favor of repression of feelings. Have you ever experienced peace like that? Peace that passes another persons ability to understand it? Or, have you rejected the peace that another person has received, believing the person to be faking their way through pain?
Jordan and I have experienced Phil 4:6-7. Last year was the most difficult year of my life. My wife and I were in an incredibly unhealthy environment, and it was, without question, the hardest season of my life. To be fair, it was not the equivalent of losing a spouse the way Jim Elliot was lost, but it was painful nonetheless. Thankfully, God gave Jordan and I “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”
God brought quick healing to us. We were recipients of comfort and direction from the Holy Spirit. As a result of that supernatural work, we walked and lived in a healthy spiritual and emotional place. We knew how to interpret the peace we were walking in. Some, however, interpreted our peace to be a lack of authenticity.
Let me encourage you. When you are going through a hard season of life, pray and have peace. Peace does not mean no pain. Peace comes when God helps us to feebly believe that God has a tighter grip on us than we have on Him. And then… When you observe God giving peace, don’t interpret it as inauthentic, rather thank God! His word is true!
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