Dwell – Day 6
Peace: freedom from disturbance; tranquility. a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.
Key Scriptures
Jeremiah 31:5
For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.
Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.
Psalm 46:10
Be still and know that I am God.
Mark 5:24-34
So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
About a year ago I found myself in the middle of great distress. My career had taken a turn, my coworkers were at odds and fighting and made my work environment miserable. My body and health were at war. I was admitted to the hospital for severe bleeding. I had sought medical advice, medications, hormones and even outpatient surgery and all had failed. There seemed to be no relief, and it went on for months. My oldest daughter was a senior and I was mourning the loss of her childhood and her growing into adulthood. And I was also in the middle of planning a 3-day spiritual weekend retreat for women. Think of a three-day wedding that you have 8 months to plan. I felt very overwhelmed and that I had no control over any of the circumstances I was in the middle of. It is situations like these that bring you to a stop. Maybe you are like me
and ask God, “Am I in trouble for something I did? Are you punishing me for my past? I work hard, read my bible, pray, and serve. Are you mad at me? When will everything go back to normal?” Have you asked God questions like these? And then proceed to make a list of things you are doing as if He doesn’t know.
I was in desperate need for control, I wanted my coworkers to get their acts together, stop fighting and get to work. I wanted my body to stop bleeding and for my youth to come back. I wanted my little girl to stop growing up and stay put. And I wanted the weekend retreat to be perfect and successful. There are a lot of I’s in those statements. Finally, I waved the white flag of surrender and admitted that I could not tackle all these things at once and needed God to get through it all. I was going to need to stop striving, be still and rest. This is the most painful process to be at peace. Our world tells us to strive, create, pursue, conquer, rush, and hurry versus the spiritual world encourages us to rest, be still, surrender, submit, let go, release and wait. What a contrast. The theme for the women’s retreat I was planning was “Trust the Process.” God was speaking directly to me, everywhere I looked during that time was that phrase or the word Trust. It became my lifeline and security blanket. God was leading me to stop in the middle of so much that seemed to need my attention and instead I rested, prayed, let others pray for me, delegated and quit. Not what you thought I would say? I rested my body, I had others pray for my healing, delegated to my teams for the retreat and then quit my job. Yep! You heard me all the opposite of what the world would have told me to do. God gets the glory when we surrender.
My healing from the bleeding started when I asked a member from our Prayer Team to pray over me. I argued with God that morning after service that I didn’t need prayer, but the Holy Spirit told me to get up, those 20 or so steps were very hard, but that was the beginning of me surrendering. She prayed very specifically, and we visualized the story of the women in Mark getting healed by touching Jesus’ robe. Just like she went to find Jesus for her healing in her desperation, God was asking me in my desperation to reach for the hand of the Prayer Team member. It was not of myself but of HIM through the church. The bleeding stopped just 2 days
later and for a month I did not bleed. God was bringing the war on my body to an end by adjusting my cycle and then after another month after still spotting a friend who had been praying for me, said that God was prompting her to tell me to stop taking the medication I was on, as it was not working anymore. I had nothing to lose at this point. And as soon as I stopped taking the meds my spotting stopped. I have been without bleeding since April. And for my work, God had a plan for a new job for me, two job offers came in without me even applying anywhere. God is so faithful; he fought the battles while I rested and healed.
Psalm 46:10
Be still and know that I am God.
How can I be still today and experience God during this holiday season?
1. By admiring His creation
2. Reading His word
3. Slowing down and stop striving
4. Listening to his voice in prayer
Key Truths:
- Because I trust you are in control, I know I don’;t have to be anxious about anything.
- Taking time to rest is a sign of trust in God. Even though I have so much to do, it shows that I need him for refueling.
- Pursuing rest is the shifting from relying on ourselves to fully trusting God. By actively seeking rest, we trade the wilderness of doubt for the green pastures of God’s presence.
Today’s Prayer
Dear LORD, help me turn my anxieties into hope, worry into peace and concern into confident trust. Your love LORD isn’t based on how well we perform. Help me today to trust in the one who provides and to make a conscious choice to surrender and to release the burden of proving self-worth. Because of Jesus, I am at PEACE.