Pursue Peace

For many of us, we have to hit rock bottom in order to be open to hearing from God. Jacob ends up wrestling with God when he is alone and surrounded by hard. He had been keeping himself so busy that he never stopped to listen to God. Can you relate? Many of us pack our lives full of soccer games, school events, work, social gatherings, side-hustles, Bible study groups, and housework that we never have a quiet moment to be with God. Maybe Jacob wrestled with God because it was the only way he was going to stop and evaluate his own life. We are too busy with our routines that we never stop to evaluate what we believe, where we are with God, and where we are going. We set out to run away, with no thought about where we might end up. But God gives us purpose and direction. When life is hard, we can run toward God. He doesn’t promise to take our suffering away right now, but he does promise to take all suffering away in the end. First Peter 1:3-7 says this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (CSB). We can run towards what is hard because we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. We can run toward hard because we have an inheritance kept in Heaven for us that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. We can run toward hard because we are being guarded by God’s power. And we can run toward hard because this hard is refining our faith so that our lives can result in praise, glory, and honor to Jesus. Reflection/Discussion Question: How can you start to implement more moments of quiet in your day in order to run toward God?

If I raise my tithe, how will I pay my mortgage? If I invest in my small group outside of student ministry, how will I have time to myself? If I quit my job, how will I support my family? We’ve most likely all asked similar questions as we’ve been confronted with God’s command to sacrifice. But if I sacrifice this, what will happen? How? When? Where? What? We want to know that we will still be taken care of if we make the sacrifice God is asking, but part of the sacrifice is trusting in God’s character. He promises to equip us, provide for us, and strengthen us, so that we have all we need to accomplish his purpose. We want our decisions to be logical, strategic, and planned. So does God! But his logic, strategy, and plan will often look vastly different than what our human minds can conceive. We almost want to bargain with God: “Okay, I’ll sacrifice this, but you need to pay me back because if you don’t, I can’t buy groceries for my family this week.” We are worried that God will forget about us, leave us empty-handed, or watch us fall flat on our faces. While God doesn’t promise those things won’t happen, he does promise to provide what we need, when we need it. When God asks us to engage in his work, he isn’t asking us to go alone. He’s asking to go where he’s already gone ahead. He’s asking us to join him where he already is. God is faithful in keeping his promises. If he is asking us to sacrifice, he will provide what we need. It may not look like what we expected or even hoped, but the question we must wrestle with is this: Do you trust that Christ is enough?  DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How have you seen God provide for you in times of need throughout your life?

I was having a really rough time at the beginning of the summer because I was home from college and everyone wanted to hang out to catch up. Of course, that wasn’t an issue, I love seeing people especially old friends. But it got to a point where I no longer had time for myself and I hated that. After I started my summer job, I would say no to hanging out more because I was so exhausted. It really was bothering one of my friends because she just thought I didn’t want to hang out with her or that I didn’t want to be her friend anymore. So there was a lot of turmoil going on. I talked to her the other day and told her that sometimes I just have to be alone, that I need the time to recharge and that it’s nothing against her. We had a pretty long talk about everything going on and how to improve our friendship, so I’m really happy with how this challenge worked out. I’m always trying to bring more peace into my life but never do until I’m pushed to.