One Word 2014: Peace

Reading through my One Word post for last year is like reading a summary of my year. It never ceases to amaze me how God uses this One Word to shape my year. He prepared me for what the year held before I even knew what I was up against.  He wrote Hope on my heart and then used it to keep me rooted and grounded in Him no matter what storms threatened to uproot me. 

As I began reflecting on all that was 2013, I dove into an advent study with Good Morning Girls as well as reading through Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift.  I was really wrestling with a lot of painful memories and some really hard sifting that is still ongoing.  It didn't surprise me that the word for the first week of advent was Hope...but what did surprise me was the way God used the daily study verses to speak to the deepest places of my heart.

During week 2 of the study, I really came to a breaking point.  I was weighed down by so much fear and before I knew it the anxiety I still struggle with had a firm grip on me.  I wrote about this a little here, but there was so much more to it.  At my weakest moment, I was hit with the first full on panic attack in a long time...and it terrified me.  Because in those moments, all I can see is the dark.  It feels like I'm sinking fast with no way of escape and I'm so very alone. 

But God didn't let me go.  He reached into that darkness and showed me how His light still shines in the darkest places.  I sat in the quiet after the storm had passed and went to the only place I knew would really give me rest: His Word.  I found myself planted in the words of Philippians 4:4-7 and as I continued to read and dig deep into these words, He spoke to my heart in a way that took my breath away.

I was no longer just reading words on a page.  It was like He was speaking them directly to my heart and as I let them soak in, I heard Him whispering the One Word I needed for the new year to come: Peace.  Only His peace can keep my mind and heart steady and secure come what may. As Spurgeon says, "Peace with God keeps the heart rich." 

I began to pray out loud, something I don't do often enough, and as I prayed I wept.  The act of speaking out loud my fears and doubts and struggles physically lifted a deep and heavy burden I'd been carrying for far too long.  Tears of hurt and pain became tears of peace and joy as He began to renew my spirit and comfort my aching heart. 

Spurgeon says, "You can not have peace unless you turn your troubles up.  You have no place in which to pour your troubles except the ear of God."  The longer I hold onto my burdens before I lay them at His feet, the more I lose the peace that is only found in Him. 

Matthew Henry's commentary describes peace as "the comfortable sense of our reconciliation to God and interest in his favour, and the hope of the heavenly blessedness, and enjoyment of God hereafter" and says that "it will keep us from sinning under our troubles, and from sinking under them; keep us calm and sedate, without discomposure of passion, and with inward satisfaction".  When my mind is so easily threatened by anxious thoughts, it's His peace I need most.  It's His peace that promises to guard my mind from whatever troubles would try to besiege and take control. 

So, this year is the year of Peace and, even more so, it's the year of no more fear.  I'm done fighting battles that He's already won.  I need His peace to face another year of unknowns. 

Come what may, I want His peace to cast my troubles far away and to keep my mind and heart deeply rooted and safe in Him.  This year, I'm purposing to run straight away to Him whenever troubles overcome and to daily practice praising Him for all He has already done and continues to do for me.  I want to live the truth of Isaiah 26:3 - "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."