In what ways would you complete this sentence: “I could have the peace I long for if only. . .”? In her book The Peace God Promises, author Ann Spangler reflects on that concept: ” Each of us can come up with our list of ‘if onlys’- of the things or the people who make our lives feel fragmented and stressful. Such lists, of course, imply that peace is situational. We will experience peace once our troublesome circumstances are resolved, once that difficult person moves on, once we find a new job. Circumstances do, of course, affect our sense of happiness. But what happens when our circumstances remain frustratingly the same, as they often do? Can we still find the peace God promises? Or are we the grand exception, the one person to whom his promises do not apply?” In times of stress or adversity, our human response to those last 2 questions probably is ‘no’ and ‘yes’, in that order. Yet Isaiah has this to say about God’s promises: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
