Advent Week 2–PEACE
By Tamira Johnson
2 Thessalonians 3:16
Now, may the Lord himself, the Lord of peace, pour into you his peace in every circumstance and in every possible way. The Lord’s tangible presence be with you all.
Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ.
John 14:27
I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!
Psalms 4:8
Now, because of you, Lord, I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once, for no matter what happens, I will live unafraid!
Storing Up Peace
By Tamira Johnson
I knew right away that Peace was what I wanted to share about this Advent Season. It’s been the cry of my heart this year as I’ve found myself feeling overwhelmed by chronic stress and the effects of it. Late this summer, those effects started to hit my body hard… In unexpected and painful ways. It was scary for me. I sought medical help and found out that my body was carrying far more inflammation than was good for me, and I needed to do whatever I could to work on getting my stress under control. Of course, I went to prayer… but it was the kind of prayer that came from a place of overwhelm and fear. A desperate plea for God to change things for me, when all along I had the tools to combat the storm I was facing and just needed to add some faith to it.
I found that faith one evening at a Greenhouse class this fall. In Bill Johnson’s book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, he said about intercession that “The tragedy is that many believers can’t yet distinguish the difference between the burden of the Lord and the weight of their own unbelief.” (This was ME!) He goes on to say:
“That kind of wayward intercession is the opposite of what Jesus expects from us when we face storms. If Jesus is sleeping in your boat, it’s not because He’s waiting for you to wake Him up with your wailing or earnest prayers. It’s because you have divine purpose. He’s wanting you to use the tools He has given you to bring about the ‘heavenly’ result. ….If you are facing a spiritual battle, it is usually because you have been trained for that moment. It means you have experienced things in your life that should have taught you how to respond to the present storm. When problems come, you should already know the right thing to do. You shouldn’t have to seek God in hours of discouraged prayer. You should be ready to step in and say, ‘I believe God for a miracle in this situation. That backslidden child will return home. That disease in your body is broken in the name of Jesus. That financial crisis is over.’ The time to pray is beforehand, like Jesus did, crying out to God in private times when nothing was going wrong. That’s how to store up power and create an inner atmosphere of peace and faith that you take with you into the troubling situation.”
What does this have to do with peace, you ask? Well, everything! His peace is something I realized I could experience before, during, and after any storm I encounter. It’s always available to me. Knowing that helped me to cultivate His peace in my heart, mind, and soul, so that I could approach my storm with confidence – even if I didn’t know the outcome. I get to walk in His peace no matter the amount of stress in my life. Peace gets to be the thing I store up in myself, and not inflammation.
I asked for prayer for that evening from my table group, for faith in my prayers and not unbelief or fear. And don’t you know, God never disappoints. I felt the presence of Peace flowing over my physical body like never before. More tangible than I’ve felt in many years. Since that evening, I haven’t experienced any of those painful effects from inflammation and have been building my faith in His Power and Peace in my life.
An old hymn chorus I heard as a teenager has stuck with me all these years. I sang it over my kids, over myself, and even others, when afraid or unable to sleep. It’s been a real tool and blessing. It’s my prayer over you today:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace Coming down from the Father above Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray In fathomless billows of love
–“Wonderful Peace” by W.D. Cornell
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