How do we know that we can trust God? Is He really even interested in us? Does He even care about us? I think the answer to these questions is summed up in the Bible verses below:
Psalm 139, verses 1-18:
1. O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.
2. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.
4. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
5. You hem me in-behind and before; You have laid Your hand on me.
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?
8. If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
9. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10. even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.
11. If I say "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
12. even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You..
13. For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.
14. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
17. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
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In reading this portion of Scripture, one thing is certain: GOD IS IMMENSELY INTERESTED IN YOU. Not only is He interested in you, but He cares for you beyond imagination. Look again at verse 13, it reads "For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb." That's right, the almighty, infinite, awesome Creator of the universe tenderly and carefully constructed you.
So what does this have to do with peace? When I read Psalm 139, I am reminded that no matter where I go, no matter what is happening, GOD IS THERE. We live in a painful world. Bad things happen. But know this: God longs for you to put your trust in Him.
God desires so much for us to trust Him that He sent Jesus to provide our salvation. Jesus suffered the punishment for our sin when He was killed on the cross. He conquered sin by rising from the dead. When we trust Christ and surrender to Him, we have access to God the Father. Not only do we have access to God, but the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us! This is where my peace comes from.
I often find it difficult to trust God when bad things are happening. But this is what I am learning: as God brings me through painful times, He is equipping me, He is sculpting me. Remember the picture of the dove in my last entry? Even in the midst of the storm, the dove seems peaceful. For that dove, peace wasn't the absence of the storm. Rather, peace was a feeling of security within the storm. I suppose it is the same for me. Peace is to know that God has my best in mind. Peace is to know that my sins are forgiven, and that I am washed by the blood of Christ. Peace is to know that I live in the presence of Creator God, now and forevermore.
