"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7
"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" -Lamentation 3:21-24
Just as the Israelites were blessed with manna from heaven each morning to meet their needs, I am blessed each morning with God's mercy to meet my needs. His compassions fail not.
Struggle is a part of life. When one is resolved, another appears or comes to the forefront of my mind. At times, I encounter multiple difficulties at the same time. And some are more challenging than others.
During times of greatest challenge, I experience the greatest disconnect between God's peace and my own worldly anguish. The clash of my humanity with God's divinity.
Just as forgiveness and love are decisions outside of the realm of "feeling," peace is not so much a feeling but a state of being. Rather than thinking of peace as a feeling of relief from struggle, perhaps Paul meant that peace is an absence of our anxiety.
Not that our struggles have disappeared, but that the anxiety surrounding them has been surrendered to the One who holds all things in His hands.
And it is human to see those struggles and have those anxieties flood back. Each day (each moment!), I must answer His call to surrender all and receive His peace. It is not a failure to feel His peace and then to feel my struggle. My victory is not in defeating all challenges and difficulties in my life. It is not in achieving some dreamlike state of blissful "peace." It is in returning my anxieties to Him each time they appear; in being renewed in His peace each morning, or moment.
