The Gift of an Untroubled Mind
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."1
In his book, Peace of Mind, Joshua Liebman writes of an experience he had when he was still a boy. "I made a list of the supreme goods in life," Liebman said. "I went to a wise mentor and I showed him the list expecting to be praised for my precocity. The list went something like this … health, love, talent, riches, beauty, and faith. As I shared the list with the old wise man, he reached for a stub of a pencil, and carefully scratched through all of the things that I had listed. He said, "Young man, you may have all of these—health, love, faith, riches, beauty—but they will all turn out to be enemies instead of friends unless you have the one thing you missed." Then he wrote on the paper, "The gift of an untroubled mind."2
From what I read and hear it appears that so many people (at least in our modern society) are plagued by depression, heartbreak, worry, anxiety, fear, and impaired relationships. And (compared to most of the world) we have just about every material benefit and human comfort we want, except so many don't have peace of mind.
There are two kinds of peace we all need in order to fully live. First, and most important of all, is spiritual peace or peace with God knowing that our sins are forgiven, our guilt is gone, and we have God's promise of a home in heaven for all eternity. This gift from God is absolutely free and comes from admitting our sinfulness and accepting Jesus as our Savior. For help see No.4 below: "Finding Peace with God."
The other kind of peace we could call emotional or relational peace. This comes from resolving any and all impaired relationships, forgiving any and all who have ever hurt us, and resolving any and all negative emotions—especially super-charged repressed negative emotions which are destroyers of both emotional and physical wellbeing and extremely destructive of personal relationships. The Bible also instructs us to get rid of (not bury or deny) all feelings of hatred and all negative emotions.3
Let's do our part to live in peace. Whether it be finding spiritual peace by renewing our relationship with the Lord, or doing our part in mending broken relationships and finding peace with others.
Suggested prayer: Dear God, please help me to see and resolve anything in my life that is causing me to have a troubled mind. Please fill me with your love and help me to know and experience your eternal peace in the very center of my being. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen.
1. John 14:27 (NIV).
2. Cited in Receive the Gift of an Untroubled Mind by Robert H. Schuller.
3. See 1 Peter 2:1-3 and James 5:16.
4. "Finding Peace With God" at: http://tinyurl.com/find-peace.
Today's Encounter was written by: Richard Innes.
All articles on this website are written by
Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise stated.