Saved by Grace - How to Find Lasting Peace and Contentment

Feb. 20, 2009 - How to Find Lasting Peace and Contentment

I imagine a seminar with this title, that was guaranteed to bring results or your "time refunded back in full", would draw large crowds. How many people in our society are walking about with a consistent lack of peace?

Recently, I was sharing my testimony of how I came to know Jesus Christ with a friend. It has been a long time since I went back to the very beginning of my life and took someone up to the point where finally, I knew what needed to be done to stop the mania and have peace.........to have inner quiet......to have purpose.....to even feel happy without drugs or alcohol.

I searched in so many places for God; the church I was raised in, the environmental movement back before it was popular; friends, social groups, cults, hobbies, even a wacko therapist's office down at college. So many places, but they all eventually came up wanting and empty. I was not finding Him. I was not finding what I was searching for. Truth was not in the answers to the questions I had, and that was the problem.

This is not to insult anyone else's religious views, this is just MY story and how it went. Looking back over the course of my life, I see God's hand. His provision and protection, even in the midst of some terrible times. Even in the midst of times I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. He was there. HE cared. And He knew one day, if I would humble myself and pray, and seek His face, He would hear from heaven and heal me. He knew His arms were there, opened wide, ready to receive me and mend my broken heart.

And my heart was broken. I was a confused person. At times, an empty shell with a leaking love tank, seeking acceptance as a means to the inner calm I so desperately wanted.

At age 19, things began to change. I was away at college, about to enjoy my first summer internship in the Forest Products Marketing field. Scanning the papers for a place to live in a remote town in North Carolina, I found a girl just a little older than myself with a need for a roommate. As it happened, she attended church and invited me along. It was there I first heard about the saving blood of Jesus and His paying for my personal sins. Things went on in that church which I had never seen, and I haven't actually seen since, but the Spirit of the Lord was present, and He came into my life.

Returning back to college, I was excited about this transformation, but I was alone in it. Few things about my day to day living changed, and the sin that had become such a part of my life continued but not without a struggle. Looking back, I see how great the importance of immediate discipling is when someone first comes to Christ, lest they fall into temptation. It was an up and down year at school. By the end of it, I had made some lasting changes I'd longed to make, with His help, but I was far from where I truly wanted to be. Finding the way was going to take some time and courage.

My second summer at college afforded another internship in NC in the Forest Marketing field. This job included heavy manual labor and I was the only female on site other than a secretary. I was a distraction due to my immodest dress, and it pains me to think of the trouble I caused. However, this helps me remember not to judge new believers. The undoing of our ungodliness takes time, sometimes several years. Looking back, I'm certain some of the men I worked for were praying men and they must have brought me before the Lord on more than a few occassions, just as the sales representative I worked for the summer prior must have. He was a godly man I think, though at the time I didn't know it.

Anyway, that second summer, I met some Christians while working at the lumber yard, and they invited me to their Bible study. I didn't attend church, but I was slowly learning more about the freedom living for Christ can bring. It had been a whole year since I first gave my heart to Him. After this job ended it was time to get back to school. I worked many hours delivering pizzas, went to classes, and dealt with some family issues I had not been privy to tackle prior to that time. Many times when I delivered pizza's I met Christians, sometimes their children would give me little handmade Bible tracts. I had even entered the home of a family that would hold my hand figuratively during my mother's unknown, yet forthcoming, death.

The third summer of my college years came and I turned 21. I had grown a bit by this point in my relationship with the Lord, but the inner struggle between my flesh and the Spirit was starting to consume me. At times I felt spiritually oppressed, just as I had in NC the previous summer--almost like I was being hounded by Satan. A decision had to be made, which side of the fence was I fully going to devote myself to? I was wore out, inside and out, and the peace I longed for grew to be the most important desire of my heart. I wanted to end it all and prayed for an accident since I was too afraid to really take matters into my own hands. I felt alone regardless of who I was with, deeply depressed. It would be years later before I learned depression is anger turned inward, and it's no wonder my life was wrought with it up until this point.

But God...He had sat patiently by allowing me to become ready for what was next.

And I was ready.

Alone in my townhouse, I opened my Bible and read Psalm 40. Those words pierced through my darkness and brought me something I had not experienced in my tumultous childhood, my rebellious adolescent years, or my searching young adult years.

There is just ONE road to peace my friends. There is just ONE way to inner calm and solace. There is just ONE name under heaven by which man can be saved from the yoke of sin and eternal separation from God. I know it. I know it because not only have I lived it, He has proven Himself to me faithfully for 15 years. No one has loved me like Jesus and no one ever will. No one has delivered on their promises, spoken or unspoken, so faithfully, and no one ever will. I'm in my 30's, I would have experienced it if it were possible by now, but people and false gods will ALWAYS let us down.

We are all in the same boat, people who sin knowingly and who were born into a sin nature. We offend a just and holy God who is real and has real standards. And this God in his GRACE, offers forgiveness of our sins and healing, if we will only humble ourselves and pray.

So many of us are convinced we know better, but all we must do to see if something is working is look at the results. Do you have what you want? You will never find it inside YOURSELF or another mortal. It is NOT there. Trust me. I worked hard to find it anywhere but where it was.

Read on:

Psalm 40

¹I waited patiently for the LORD;
         And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
    ²He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
         And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
    ³He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
         Many will see and fear
         And will trust in the LORD.
    ⁴How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust,
         And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
    ⁵Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done,
         And Your thoughts toward us;
         There is none to compare with You
         If I would declare and speak of them,
         They would be too numerous to count.
    ⁶Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
         My ears You have opened;
         Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
    ⁷Then I said, "Behold, I come;
         In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
    ⁸I delight to do Your will, O my God;
         Your Law is within my heart."
    ⁹I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
         Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
         O LORD, You know.
    ¹⁰I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
         I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
         I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
    ¹¹You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
         Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
    ¹²For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
         My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
         They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
         And my heart has failed me.
    ¹³Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;
         Make haste, O LORD, to help me.
    ¹⁴Let those be ashamed and humiliated together
         Who seek my life to destroy it;
         Let those be turned back and dishonored
         Who delight in my hurt.
    ¹⁵Let those be appalled because of their shame
         Who say to me, "Aha, aha!"
    ¹⁶Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
         Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
         "The LORD be magnified!"
    ¹⁷Since I am afflicted and needy,
         Let the Lord be mindful of me.
         You are my help and my deliverer;
         Do not delay, O my God.

This for me, was the end of the beginning. Everything started changing for the better in rapid succession, and 6 months after this time, I was indeed, obviously, a new creation in Christ. The following summer I was hired to work at Summer's Best Two Weeks, teaching outdoor activities like rock climbing and canoeing. I met a wonderful friend who is still a part of my life. And I was empowered for what was to become the hardest year of my life up until that point--the sickness and death of my beloved mother, followed by the death of her mother a week later.

Sometimes God is so near, but we simply refuse to see Him. If He is calling out to you, don't shut the door. If we seek Him we will find Him, and insodoing, we will find what our hearts have always yearned for, regardless of the circumstances in our daily lives.

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