"Working for Peace"

I don't know about y'all, but my days can be pretty hectic.  I am incredibly blessed in that I only have to work three (very long exhausting) days a week at work.  But, believe me, those days are a constant "go, go, go".  It's up and down.  Push and pull.  Here and there... all at the speed of what feels quite like a relay races I ran way back in my high school track days.   The song, "She works hard for the money"  plays consistently on replay, over and over again in the back of my head.  ( "Take This Job and Shove It"  is a weekly tune as well, but don't tell anyone... LOL)   To put it lightly, my job is NUTSO!  And I'm expected to have a smile on my face the entire 12hours. I know there are many jobs out there that are far worse, believe me I know, and I am appreciative for the career path I've chosen.  It's just that some days I wish I had a desk job in a cubicle somewhere quiet where the only noise I heard all day was the clicking of my fingernails on the keyboard.  So, yeah, you get it.  My work days are very hectic and stressful.  But what's even crazier... sometimes my days OFF work are even more hectic!!  Life at home with a three and a half year old are very action packed and tiresome when you are trying to keep a clean and tidy house (which  the tidy part I'm failing at miserably.. suggestions please!!).  Especially when on most days, I'm her only source of entertainment (cuz Heaven knows I'm not just plopping her in front of the TV for hours and hours... no sir!)  I really cherish our days together though.  She fills my life with JOY and EXCITMENT and PURPOSE like I've never felt before!  She's makes me laugh harder than almost anyone can (besides her silly Daddy) yet she can say the sweetest things and bring me to big crocodile tears in an instant.  Ok. Ok.  I'm getting off track...  I guess you get what I'm saying?  In all this craziness that life brings on a day to day basis, where the heck is the PEACE?  I know my peace comes from God.  He alone has proven that many times over in my life.  But why does it seem to come and go so easily... and why do I have to work for it too??   It feels like all I do is WORK!  I did some Bible searching this morning and found something that I thought was so super cool that I had to share:  There is literally the exact sentence in the Bible written twice!  In two different chapters very far apart from one another!!
Chapters which were, to my knowledge (and please correct me if I'm wrong) were written by two different people!!!!  To me, that's CRAZINESS people!  I felt like I struck gold when God showed this to me!  (Obviously you can tell that although I've been a Christian literally almost my entire life, I am just now recently really studying the Bible like it was meant to be studied... so bare with me.)   1 Peter 3:11 says," Turn away from evil and do good.  Search for peace, and work to maintain it."     Psalm 34:14 also reads, " Turn away from evil and do good.  Search for peace, and work to maintain it".    WHAAAAT?!!  That's amazing!  The part that really stood out to me was, "SEARCH for peace, and WORK to maintain it".   There have been so many times that I've wanted peace, but I've been wallowing in my sorrows so deeply that I've expected God to just make peace come with out my lazy "poor, poor me" self being willing to even get out of bed and put forth any effort to seeing that happen.  I know the Bible tells me in John 16:33, "... Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart because I have overcome the world!"  So then, why do I need to work at maintaining peace if my trials are overcome?  (I wonder if God would say right now, "Because I said so!!"  LOL  My mom always used that line on us growing up when we asked ridiculous questions too.)  Well, the Bible also tells us that the enemy wants to steal our joy and our peace.  John 10:10 says, " The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. "   But remember my friend, you are not a victim... you are a VICTOR!  YES!!!  The godly may trip seven times, but they will get back up again!  (Proverbs 24:16)  So the stupid devil may knock you down again and again... but God has given us a spirit of power and love (2 Timothy 1:7) and we are to put on the armor of God and fight for our peace, our joy and our solitude!  This world is NUTS!  It's full of violence, sadness, death,  haters, and just plain mean people every where!  But our God never sleeps or slumbers.  He is watching over us constantly! (Psalm 121:3-7)
You've heard that old song, "read your Bible, pray every day"... well, guess what I'm learning the hard way.... you gotta read your Bible and pray EVERYDAY!  LOL  (Not sure why I fought that for so long... other than just pure laziness.)  I had the honor of attending DEVOTED women's conference at WAVE Church, VA Beach this year and it changed my life!  It changed the way I saw myself... and my self worth.  Holly Wagner spoke and she said something that stuck with me.  "Do whatever necessary to get freedom (peace) from what is holding you back".   Wow.  WOW!  Hello, That's powerful stuff, peeps!  Do whatever necessary!  Hmmm... that might even mean do something that looks or feels like, dare I say... work.  But let me assure you, this work will pay you back a bazillion times more than the effort you put in to it. 
 I've given myself a few guidelines to help me achieve peace, and believe me, there are some times it is waaaaay harder than others, but here they are:
1.  Pray about EVERYTHING! Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not worry about anything, instead pray about everything.  (It's hard not to worry, but when you actually let go of the burdens and truly give them to God, the peace that comes just from that will leave you in awe.)  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.  This lead to number two...

2.  Thank God for all that He has already done in your life.  There is always always always something to be thankful for!  Always!!

3. Follow the commandments of God.  I was reading not too long ago and found a verse that was really eye opening to me.  Psalm 119:45 says, "I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.   Whether this means the ten commandments or just God's personal commands for your life, His direction and path He's putting on your heart... follow it.  It might be the opposite of what you had planned, but if you don't follow it, there will always be an unsteady feeling in your heart and a tugging in another direction.

4.  Read the Bible.  Pray.  Listen to worship music.  Pray.  Be involved in church. Pray.  Talk to God like He is what He is... a father, a trusted friend, a councilor.   It's a relationship with Christ that is going to bring peace.  It will bring self acceptance, destiny, excitement, forgiveness,  and that peace you've sooooo longed for.  Pray everyday, all day.

5. What ever it is you are hoping for or searching for, speak it!  Speak it out loud like it's already happened or gonna happen.  I've seen so many people do this and it actually works.  It's sort of like that whole "mind over matter" thing.  Right now, I'm speaking that we WILL get a house on our land in the next few years and we WILL have one or heck, maybe even two more kiddos running around.  Speak it.  Believe it!

6. GET UP!  RISE UP!!  Don't sit back and wait for the peace to just come to you!  This one has been hard for me at times.  Like I said before, I've been so low that I've almost expected others to do the work for me.  But one day it hit me, this is MY LIFE!  This is MY FIGHT!  And this life, MY LIFE, is worth getting up for!!  I heard Victoria Osteen Comes say, "Just because you were wounded, doesn't mean you have to live a wounded life"!!!  Wow!  LOVE that!  Let's stop playing the wounded and victim card and start making a difference in our own lives... because they are worth it!  Why don't we start being the amazing powerful people God intended us to be and fight and work hard to maintain our peace!  Peace is all around us because God is all around us. 

The other day at my crazy job in the midst of one of the largest traumas I've witnessed in my almost 12 yeas working there, I found my peace just by whispering a few little words to myself:  God is with us.  I was literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off and so angry and frustrated that things weren't going smoothly and just as I was about to break down, I froze in my tracks, closed my eyes for a few seconds and said, "God is with us", and I felt an amazing peace come over me.  Right then, right there I saw the good in the situation.  I saw the amazing team of nurses, doctors, and techs and how well they were all handling this.  I refused to let the enemy get the best of me and I let God take over!  Peace was found.  Peace won that battle.  That's all it took.  And guess what...  that didn't even feel work!   ;)