Will she be okay? She’ll miss home. How long does the process take? What does Google say? Suppose it takes longer than expected? I don’t want her to miss the holidays at home. She’s already missing her birthday with us… Sigh.

These are very real thoughts and questions for me as I write this devotional. My family is about to go through a period of separation that has me experiencing a range of emotions. And how timely is it that I have the task to write on the topic of peace. But God is like that. So real, so personal and so attuned to my life better than I can ever be. He knew what I was going to be experiencing as I sought to write about peace. He knew that this devotional was not just going to be for the audience of women reading this but also for me as I write it.

How do we experience God’s peace when we are left hanging with unanswered questions and unknown futures for ourselves and our loved ones? Our devotional’s passage provides a two-step guide on how to find this peace in such anxious seasons:

Step 1: Replace worry with prayer: Instead of dwelling on the issue at hand and conjuring all kinds of what ifs, let us simply tell God what is bothering us and what we need from Him. The NIV tells us to petition Him; that is to appeal to Him, recognizing that He has the authority and the ability to do what we ask of Him. Presenting our prayers by faith to the One who can do the unimaginable!

Step 2: Thank God for what He has done: Recognize the amazing things He has already done that remind us of what a BIG GOD He is! Not just the things in our lives but even what He has done in the lives of others that reveal His sovereign, omnipotent, incomprehensible existence! May we dwell on these that it may build up our faith in Him to do the incomprehensible in the matters before us now.

Replace worry with prayer + Be thankful = Experience God’s Peace

An equation I need to use when I feel those anxious moments building up. An equation that I pray also helps you to experience God’s peace in your own anxious moments.