Would you be able to do this?

Posted : 1 Dec, 2010 10:04 AM

Do you have "a Garden of Eden sense of well-being"?



This morning, in the midst of health and financial trials within my family concerning my brother Rob and his family, my heart and spirit were blessed and encouraged and comforted anew through learning how our brother Peter responded to the difficult trial he was facing at the end of his earthly life. In this article from the new December 2010 issue of In Touch magazine, we are all encouraged and inspired to remember Peter and follow his example as we face and deal with God's loving presence and help in our personal trials and tribulations and those of our loved ones and friends.



I share this article with you now as another blessing of love from my heart and spirit, in service to God, for yours!!! :hearts::hearts::hearts:



Steve



In Search of Shalom

Letting Go of the Things that Weigh Us Down

By Chris Tiegreen



Peter slept. That in itself wasn�t especially unusual, but on this particular night it was. He was heavily guarded in an uncomfortable prison and would stand trial the next day�which everyone knew would just be for show. King Herod�s popularity had soared when he began cracking down on followers of Jesus and executed one of their other leaders, James. Peter�s arrest was clearly a political strategy that would end the same way, so the young Jerusalem church prayed desperately. The situation didn�t look good at all. Still, somehow Peter was able to rest.



I don�t know many people who would sleep the night before their trial and almost certain execution. My mind would be filled with concerns about what to say in my defense, what it feels like when you die, how my loved ones would get along without me, and endless questions about what might happen. I often can�t sleep even when I�m dealing with more minor issues, like a heavy workload, financial stress, or maybe the dysfunctional behavior of a certain friend or family member. As for lying on a stone floor in chains the night before my impending public execution? I�m pretty sure I�d be wide awake. But Peter, chained to his prison guards (to make sure he couldn�t escape), had to be awakened by the angel who appeared in his cell to dramatically rescue him. Even the bright light that filled the cell wasn�t enough to disrupt his sleep�the angel actually struck him on his side. On the night before his probable death, Peter was completely at peace.



The Anxiety Problem



Most of us crave that kind of peace, but few of us live in it consistently�and many of us have some pretty valid reasons for that. At this moment, I have a friend who�s been unemployed for well over a year, another has been caring for his now-dying mother for the last 15 years; several friends have lived on the verge of foreclosure for months, and some deal with children in crises ranging from unplanned pregnancy to criminal charges to leukemia.



I myself am a guy with a brain-injured son, a long family history of depression, off-and-on financial pressures, and the list goes on. Like many, I�ve been through job loss, broken relationships, and long hours in hospital waiting rooms. So I well know that all of these are serious issues. But I have to face the fact that �serious issues� and �valid reasons� just do not trump God�s intentions for us. In the midst of life�s difficulties, He promises peace. He says He wants us to be free from the weight of our burdens. We have to ask ourselves whether or not we really believe what He says.



Jesus wasn�t speaking figuratively when He said not to worry about our lives (Matt. 6:25), and His words are echoed time and again (i.e., Phil. 4:6). In fact, the most frequently repeated command in Scripture is �fear not.� But it�s also one of the most often disobeyed. Anxious thoughts easily creep into our minds and dominate our attention. We lie awake, stressing and obsessing over concerns far less earth-shattering than the situation Peter faced in prison that night. And before we object that Peter was a super-Christian, let�s con-sider his track record as a disciple. He was a man just like us, who struggled but ultimately learned to fully receive the Holy Spirit�s peace that Jesus promised to give His followers (John 14:27; 16:33). The same kind of all-transcending rest Peter experienced that night in jail is available to us.



Why Do We Worry?



God designed us for peace. The Hebrew for �peace� is shalom (the same word used for �hello� and �goodbye�), but it means so much more than the English translation we often read throughout Scripture. Shalom is fullness, wholeness, completeness, abundance, safety�basically, life as God intended before the fall: a garden-of-Eden sense of well-being.



And this isn�t just some faraway notion.



When the Bible calls Jesus our Prince of Peace, it�s referring to our shalom, the One who fulfills us and offers us wholeness in every area of life. And part of our life of peace in Him is freedom from worry. Within shalom, there is no anxiety, no discontent or emptiness, no endless loops of �what ifs� robbing us of sleep. We can rest in who God says He is, the breadth of what He�s done for us, and what He�s promised�even when we�re dealing with stressful, serious issues.



But ever since the fall, we�ve lived in a broken reality. In Eden, our first parents had all the provision, approval, and security they needed. They didn�t wonder if they were loved, try to impress God or each other, stockpile wealth in attempts to ensure they�d never be lacking, or think constantly about all the things that might go wrong. But when perfect communion with the Creator was severed, we lost sight of the innate assurances with which He created us. We began striving. Ever since, we�ve taken the enormous burdens of a secure life upon ourselves, all the while desperately seeking shalom.



People have long sought that place of rest with counterfeits and shoddy substitutes, whether substances or habits that saddle us with the crushing weight of addiction. We�ve tried to buy our way to comfort and ended up with heavy debts. We�ve manipulated our way into desired relationships that have resulted in life-sapping dysfunction. We�ve tried to impress our way into positions that, instead of giving us security, impose grinding responsibilities we can barely keep up with. And the list goes on. There�s no end to the ways we complicate our lives by trying to uncomplicate them. Our best efforts weigh us down.



All of this maneuvering becomes an endless source of stress. It�s hard to maintain enough material security to never fear lack, enough status to constantly feel approved of, or enough relationships to feel genuinely loved. And whatever we gain in these areas is always subject to loss�a prospect that keeps us preoccupied with all kinds of anxieties.



So when Jesus tells us, �Do not be worried about your life� or Paul tells us to �be anxious for nothing,� we nod our heads at this wonderful advice and deep down wonder if it�s even possible. I, for one, have no trouble trusting the Lord in theory, but there are times when I struggle to trust Him in practice. I�ve read the Bible closely enough to know that He often lets godly people go through difficulties. So it�s easy for me to worry that He might allow such a thing in my case�and to forget that He promises to be with me even in those trials and work them together for good. I take great comfort in the fact that Jesus told His disciples that �not a hair of your head will perish� (Luke 21:18). But two verses earlier, He warned that some of them would be put to death. Obviously, He defines �protection� differently than we do.



Yet it�s clear that He wants us to live in freedom from the oppressive weight of worry and stress. He urges us to trust Him in every circumstance, and He doesn�t do so with empty words. There�s a reason we can depend on Him with our lives: He is trustworthy.



The Battle for Our Trust



Still, this truth doesn�t easily make the journey from our heads to our hearts, so we live as striving subjects of a King who�s already promised to give us all things generously. And something�s very wrong with that picture.



I think one of the biggest challenges we face in life is the struggle to genuinely believe in God�s goodness. It�s not that we have trouble believing in this at an intellectual level; every Christian would agree that God is good. But deep within�particularly when we�re going through a crisis�we struggle to believe He is good to us. Is this God truly worthy of our trust?



This is actually the question the serpent posed in the garden to the first couple. �Maybe God is holding out on you,� he suggested, and Eve wondered if he was right. In one way or another, we all go through seasons of wrestling with this same question. It may be the key battle of our spiritual life. And until we�ve settled it, shalom remains elusive and our burdens weigh us down. When we resolve that internal battle of whether we can trust Him, we can stop striving.



The Lord�s admonition to cease from worry isn�t just a placating pat on the back; He says this because we have sound, authentic reasons to place our confidence in Him. He really is watching out for us. He is a very present help in trouble, even when He doesn�t spare us from all tribulation. He really does offer shalom to those who choose to rest in Him.



And that�s why it is possible to live an unburdened life�to take respite in the goodness of God, no matter what circumstances look like or how our security and plans feel threatened. We can give up our faulty efforts to find wholeness on our own and instead choose to believe that He is all we need. When situations provoke us to worry, we can take Him at His word. Then, even in the worst of trials, we can lie down and sleep in peace.



Copyright 2010 In Touch Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org. In Touch grants permission to print for personal use only.

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