Do you feel overwhelmed? Stressed out? All of us deal with worries that wear us down. Many of us experience consistent anxiety, and peace can be hard to find. But it is in the middle of our stress and fear that God extends his unshakeable peace to us. Join author Ann Swindell and learn how to experience Christ’s peace in our daily lives, regardless of the circumstances we face.
Baker Publishing
Day 1
Scriptures: Exodus 3:1-12, Psalms 118:7, John 14:26, Psalms 46:1
From Fear to Peace
Have you ever felt terrified?
Not just afraid—but really, truly terrified?
For me, one of these moments happened when I experienced my first anaphylactic reaction. My palms and the bottoms of my feet suddenly turned red and alive with inflammation and itchiness. The walls around me whirled and surged as I began to black out. My body was completely out of my control.
After an ambulance ride and a short stay in the ER, I quickly found an allergist. I now carry an EpiPen with me wherever I go. Fear motivated me to get the help I needed.
When we think of Moses, we might think of the baby in the basket, or maybe the prince of Egypt.
But no matter how we think of Moses, when his name comes up, it is easy to remember him in the flashy moments: the plagues in Egypt, the exodus of God’s people, the parting of the Red Sea, the provision of manna in the desert. At every turn, his life seems incredible.
But his is also a life marked by fear.
Moses felt immense fear when he came upon the presence of God in the desert—and with good reason. In the Old Testament, we learn that no one could see the face of God and live (Exodus 33:20). Moses was afraid for his life.
But fear is actually a gift to us, for it can help us when we respond to it rightly. In Exodus 3, we see that Moses’ fear led him to strip off his sandals, fall to his knees, and listen to God. My fear led me to find a doctor and get emergency medicine.
In whatever circumstance you find yourself today, remember that the fear you feel is meant to strengthen you to get the help that you need. And while that help may come in the form of a doctor or medicine or a counselor, what the human heart ultimatelyneeds is the peace that comes from the presence of God. Why? Because God is our greatest Helper (Psalm 118:7, John 14:26).
Yes—that same Presence that scared Moses is actually also the antidote to his fear. The presence of God becomes his help.
For while God is mighty and awesome, he is also humble and lowly. The God whose presence alarmed Moses in the desert is the same one who came as the baby born in a manger. The same God whose existence emblazoned the bush is the same one who hugged children and touched lepers and ate with sinners. He knew Moses and called him by name; he knows you and calls you by name too.
And although it is God’s presence that frightens Moses at first, it is also actually what saves him: God overcomes Moses’ fear with his presence. For as he calls Moses into a new role—as the leader of the Israelites—Moses is deeply afraid. God’s answer to him? “I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12). God would be with Moses—and that truth offered him peace.
God’s presence is what gives us peace when we come face-to-face with our fears. He is the antidote to our fear, not because our fears disappear, but because we don’t face them alone. His presence is our help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).
Christ’s presence with you, through the great gift of the Holy Spirit, is the help that you need to overcome fear and experience peace—the peace of a soul that is at rest in God and with God, knowing that you are never alone.
Day 2
Scriptures: Ruth 3:1-13, Hebrews 13:8
Peace When Life is Out of Control
All of us have found ourselves in situations where life feels completely out of our control. When our bodies break down, when our bank account runs dry, when our families fall apart, when someone we love is lost—in those times we realize, afresh, how little we have control over.
We see that we must wait on God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
When we read about the life of Ruth, one thing we come to quickly see is that so much of Ruth’s life was completely out of her control. She was a foreigner in a foreign land, without power or prestige, at the mercy of Boaz and his workers for her daily bread. And when she followed Naomi’s advice to nudge Boaz into marriage, she found her life in the hands of her kinsman-redeemer.
Would Boaz redeem her and marry her? Or would the other relative—a man she did not know—redeem and marry her instead? Her life and future are now at a critical turning point—and Ruth has no power to make anything happen. All she can do is go home with Naomi and wait.
She is completely dependent upon others.
She is completely dependent upon the Lord.
I can guess that as Ruth waited, she felt the same things we do: uncertainty, fear, anxiety, even hope. Can you picture her pacing the dirt floor of Naomi’s home, wringing her hands and praying for God to make his will clear? What was God’s plan for her life? Would Boaz redeem her? How would it all play out? She had no way to control it, no way of guiding the outcome. She simply had to wait.
Have you had seasons of waiting too? I have had so many times where I have felt the gravity of an outcome that was completely out of my hands. Waiting on a call back from a job opportunity. Waiting for a spouse. Waiting on a diagnosis. Waiting on a pregnancy test. I’ve asked so many questions in the waiting: Was this God’s plan, or had I missed it? Would we have the provision that we needed, or would everything fall through? How would everything play out?
I had to wait.
And yet, in the waiting times of our lives, when every decision and action is out of our hands, there is a gift lingering for us: the opportunity to commune with Christ more deeply. When we are desperate for him to move on our behalf, we see that we are never truly in control, although most of us lean on the illusion that we are.
Waiting on God can be a place of great peace if we turn our attentions away from whatever we are waiting for—the diagnosis, the job, the relationship, the healing—and turn toward the One who is in total control and holds everything in his hands.
The Lord, who is unchanging, is just as good and faithful in our waiting as he is when our lives seem to be sailing along smoothly. Because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), our souls can be at rest in him, no matter how little we have control over.
Day 3
Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1-20
Peace When Our Bodies Fail Us
First Samuel shows us that Hannah knew what it was like to feel that her body was failing her. Everywhere she turned in her shared home with Peninnah, children were underfoot—but they weren’t her children. Day-to-day life was a reminder of her brokenness, a reminder that the life she wanted was just outside of her reach.
Whether we struggle with physical pain, emotional instability, or mental illness, all of us know what it feels like to live in bodies that feel broken in one way or another. Depression, anxiety, chronic illness, infertility, immunodeficiency, cancer, allergies—these are just a few of the many struggles that we, as humans, face on a daily basis.
And it’s hard. So very hard.
Like Hannah, it’s hard to live in bodies that don’t work and don’t seem to measure up. It’s difficult to live with brains that don’t function the way we want them to. It’s challenging to constantly bump up against our limitations and our pains.
Yet there is peace for us in Christ, even in these broken and decaying bodies. Throughout the Word, we see the Lord using men and women whose bodies were imperfect and worn down. Sarah was too old to bear children (see Genesis 18:12), and yet she birthed a miracle in her old age! Jacob had a permanent limp because he had wrestled with God (see Genesis 32:31), and yet he also met with God. Moses struggled to speak, and yet he was the Lord’s chosen leader for the Israelites. Elizabeth had been barren for decades—until the Lord opened her womb (see Luke 1:57-58). Paul had a “thorn in his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7) that the Lord would not take away, but he was still the author of much of the New Testament.
Yes, there is peace for us—a peace that comes knowing that our hope is not ultimately in the healing of our bodies, but in God himself. For God does not shy away from our broken bodies and weary minds; he loves to show his glory through our weakness!
Yes, Hannah’s infertility brought her great pain and heartache; her soul wrestled with God and others. But what she could not yet know was that the Lord was still at work, writing a beautiful story for her life. For while her body seemed to be withering, her soul was growing in faith.
And long before Hannah’s exterior life changes, she shows us a glimpse of the biblical truth that “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). Even in her “troubles,” Hannah was a woman who chose to worship God at his temple (1 Samuel 1:9-11). Even as she struggled with infertility and cried over how her life was turning out, she did not turn away from the Lord. She turned toward him instead.
If you find yourself wrestling with God today over your broken body, mind, or spirit, consider Hannah and the many saints in the Bible who walked with God and found their weaknesses met by God’s grace. Like them, you can experience peace as you make the choice to turn toward God today in worship and in faith, even if your life is not turning out the way you had hoped.
Day 4
Scriptures: Luke 6:12-16, Romans 15:7
Peace with Difficult People
Do you have a difficult person in your life? Maybe someone you can’t get away from? That person might be in your family, in your friendship circle, or in your church. It might be a co-worker or the coach of your kid’s soccer team. Whoever it is, we all have a difficult person we’re dealing with (or several of them, if we’re being honest).
Sometimes these people are difficult because they are unkind or emotionally distant; sometimes it’s just because they rub us the wrong way. But being around them steals our sense of peace because we feel off-kilter in their presence.
I can imagine that when Jesus first brought all of his disciples together, there was the potential for a lot of friction—and a distinct lack of peace. Before Jesus called them, we don’t know if the disciples were friends or enemies, if their families had long histories of love or hate. Perhaps some of their families held old grudges. Or perhaps some of the disciples had snubbed Matthew when they walked by his booth. But regardless of how they interacted before Jesus called them, once he spoke their names, everything changed. They were the original small group—and they didn’t get to choose each other.
When Jesus called these disciples to himself, he did so for his own purposes and his own plan. And they had absolutely no say about whether they liked the other members! If these disciples wanted to be part of what Jesus was doing on earth, they had to learn to live in community not only with Jesus, but with one another. They had to learn to be at peace with Christ and each other.
This is our call too—to be at peace, even with those who are difficult for us. This does not mean that every hard relationship will suddenly morph into butterflies and rainbows—or that we should ever stay in abusive relationships. What it does mean is that, like the disciples, we can learn to have souls that are at rest in the middle of relationships we would never choose on our own—especially with those who are also part of God’s family.
Whether our struggle is with a challenging child or a difficult in-law or an annoying colleague, there is an opportunity for our souls to be at rest when we are with them, because we can trust that God has brought our lives together for his purposes. When we struggle with anxiety over relationships with other believers, we can ask God to help us “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7). We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us peace as we interact with those who exasperate us.
God brings people into and out of our lives for his plans and purposes. Although we will never be able to avoid every difficult relationship we have, it is possible to learn to be at peace with others as we walk with Christ. Take heart! If a tax collector and a zealot can go from being enemies to fellow disciples at peace with each other, there is hope for all of us in the challenging relationships in our lives.
Day 5
Scriptures: Acts 16:16-34, Philippians 4:11-13
Peace that Overcomes Anxiety
If there’s one thing to be said about Paul’s life as a follower of Jesus, it’s that his life was never boring! He saw people get saved, took on new disciples, and planted new churches. And his presence in many of the cities he visited caused an uproar. Both revivals and riots—these were common occurrences when Paul went into a city to preach the gospel.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas land in jail in the city of Philippi. But God causes an earthquake that leads to their freedom and also to the jailer’s salvation. While it is a beautiful moment, it came at great personal cost to Paul. He had been severely beaten and treated horribly. His future was in limbo. His friend, Silas, was also suffering.
And yet, the Scriptures show us that Paul was, amazingly, at peace throughout the entire ordeal. Although they are battered and wounded, Paul and Silas use their time in the darkness of prison to worship God through song and prayer. They know that their lives are in God’s hands, and so they worship the Lord for who he is, even in the middle of an awful situation.
Years later, Paul wrote a letter to the Philippian church, sharing that he has “learned” to be content, no matter what he faces (Philippians 4:11-13).
Whether he has much or little, whether he is exalted or disparaged, he is at peace in Christ. He has what he needs because he has Jesus. Paul’s strength to be able to endure everything from prison to plenty comes from the fact that he is united to Christ.
All of us, like Paul, will face both highs and lows, both joy and sorrow. Yes, God set Paul apart for his unique ministry on earth, but he was not a superhero. He had to “learn” to be content—he had to learn how to find peace in Christ in whatever circumstance he faced.
The same is true for us. Most of us will not automatically find ourselves singing hymns in the lowest moments of our days—but we can learn to do so. Most of us will not knee-jerk our way into prayer when our bodies or minds are hurting—but we can learn to do so. We can train our hearts, through practice and time, to turn to Jesus in our pain rather than wallowing in it:
We can choose to open the Bible rather than scrolling on our phones.
We can choose to turn on a worship song rather than the TV.
We can choose to call a friend and ask for prayer rather than calling to gripe.
These are not easy choices, but they are choices, nonetheless. As we choose the way of Christ over our flesh, we will find the peace that passes understanding and overcomes anxiety. Paul wrote about this in that same letter to the Philippians:
“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5-7).
What Paul did in that jail cell—offering prayer and thanksgiving to Christ—that is how we “learn the secret of facing” anything that comes our way. For as we do so, God’s peace will guard us, no matter where we are.