When I was fearful about the future, when I was unsure about what would happen down the line in any event over any period of time, I immediately run to my mother or my father for any kind of comfort.
What really could they do about every challenge or any problem in my life?
Can anyone really expect any one person to overcome every concerns in life?
That was wrong.
Alcoholics Anonymous specifically teaches its members to run to other people about the struggles in their lives.
Never have I read or do I recall that I should trust in my loving God, my loving Creator to provide for me in every way. I still remember one passage in the 12 and 12 talking about how some people in the program never recover financially, but always struggle from year to year in their lives.
What?! That's not the promise of My Father!
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2)
Of course, no one should be surprised by the learned helplessness pushed in AA. Bill Wilson was all about making himself prosper ... at the expense of men and women struggling with alcohol addiction.
But I digress.
My mother was the Stepper Mom of all steppers. She taught me not only to run every problem I faced through her, but when I felt mad, angry, upset, or otherwise, I had been trained to run everything to her.
If someone had set me off or offended me, I was condemned if I did not share it with someone else. This compulsion upset me in so many ways.
This was especially true when dealing with financial and moral setbacks in my life. Over the last few years of my mother's life, when we were still talking, I noticed that it became more difficult to get any kind of comfort from her. She had no peace of her own to grant me, and whatever advice she had dispensed in the past stopped working.
Her advice was often wrong, or I could sense that it was not going to work.
Scary times! I had been taught to trust her with everything. How wrong she was!
Sometimes, it still seems that I want something tangible to comfort me, some advice clearly spoken to me that will work to keep me safe and in place.
Even after I had dispensed with the bad parents and their parenting, I still wanted to ensure that everything would work out as I hope it would. I wanted to know that every issue in my life was solved, was taken care of.
But that's not the way to seek peace.
What we need to know, as soon as we receive Jesus into ourselves, is that He has already granted us peace--His Own!
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)
We already have His peace! In fact, Jesus IS our Peace!
14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to
make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them
that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father." (Ephesians 2:14-18)
We have peace with God our Father because we have been justified by faith! (Romans 5:1)
As long as we commit ourselves to man's ways and wiles--like AA--the peace which Christ has given to us will be overlooked, ignored, or abandoned. Then we will find ourselves unable to rest in the face of the most daunting of challenges.
Jesus is our peace, and He is also our rest!
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
In Greek "I will give you rest" should be rendered "I will rest you."
Jesus is our rest, and therefore it is best for us to see more of Him, not run to other people for our peace and comfort.
I write this today as I face ongoing challenges in my life, and have gotten upset at God for not taking care of these problems right away. "I want these conflicts resolved in my life right now!"
Of course, this life is not my life to begin with. He is my life (Colossians 3:4).
Second of all, I will not find rest in the external problems being solved. In Mark 4, the disciples cried out to Jesus during the storm on the sea of Galilee: "Master, don't you care that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)
Jesus dispatched the storm with one word, then rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith.
How did they respond?
"41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What
manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41)
They were MORE afraid.
Peace is not dependent on the external circumstances, but Himself.
This is one more misunderstanding that has been sloughed off in my life. No longer do I expect or immediately jump toward asking someone else to comfort me. I trust His life, His leading to be Peace in my life!