Where Do You Find Your Peace?

The world would say we need to be successful in order to be significant, but God says we can be significant without being successful. In fact, God’s definition of “significant” may not feel like worldly significance at all.  The world tells us that we can find success when we look inside ourselves for our goals, passions, and dreams and put in the hard work to make them happen. Only when you see success, get recognized for your achievements, and reap the rewards of your hard work will you be significant. The problem is, what if you work your hardest and still fail? What if no one notices your work? What if everyone misunderstands your efforts? What if there’s no reward? What if you never reach success? This is the problem with worldly significance—it’s based on worldly standards that can only be achieved through our own work. But Godly significance is based on God’s work and his kingdom. In order to live a life of eternal significance, we join the work that God is already doing. Instead of working out our own plans for success that leads to our own glory, we can follow God’s plan that will lead to his glory. It may not look significant to the world around us, but a life of significance will lead to an eternity of glory in heaven. Reflection/Discussion Question: Are you pursuing success or significance

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?