Where Do We Find Peace?

By Putting Our Trust in the Right Place

Last week we began this Advent season by discussing hope. This week’s focus is peace. It can be hard to find peace in the crazy, busy, chaotic time of the year.

Wilma’s children’s message made this point using a snow globe. When we shake a snow globe, the snow swirls all around whatever is inside. Our lives can feel a lot like that. Everything is swirling around and around and we feel caught in the storm with no way out.

But the thing to remember is… we’re the ones shaking the snow globe.

If we will give the snow globe to God, it only gets shaken when it needs to be.

Too often, this is how we do life: we have a plan and we just keep shaking and shaking, thinking more effort will fix it. All this really leads to is stress and hopelessness.

Sometimes, we’re faced with things that are out of our control. When this happens, it’s up to us to choose how we handle the situation.

Take Joseph, for example. Imagine what he must have felt when he found out the women he was engaged to was pregnant— and the baby wasn’t his. Talk about being stuck in a swirling snow globe.

He had choices. He could have saved face and ridiculed Mary or even had her stoned. Instead, he chose to set the snow globe down, quietly step away from the engagement, and move on with his life. That was his plan.

But that wasn’t God’s plan.

In Matthew 1:18-25, we learn about God’s plan:

“¹⁸ After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

²⁰ But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus,  because He will save His people from their sins.”

Joseph trusted God.

“²⁴ When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her ²⁵but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named Him Jesus.”

Joseph could have ignored the message from God. He could have kept shaking the snow globe, but he didn’t. He chose to trust God instead. It can be hard to stop shaking the snow globe. We want control and sometimes we fight against giving it up. And we know how well our way usually turns out.

Peace comes from God. It is a gift given to us, but we have to accept it. Peace is with God. His presence is comforting us. Peace is of God. It is far beyond our thinking and understanding.

In Philippians 4:1-9, we are reminded that we may not always agree with each other, but we are called to:

“⁴ Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! ⁵ Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. ⁶ Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. ⁷ Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.”

Peace does not come from us being in control. Peace comes from God being with us and in us.

So, maybe it’s time to stop shaking the snow globe so much…and start putting our trust in the right place, in the One who knows what is best for us.