The fruitless pursuit of peace

So many of recent devotional readings I've read with Bev are about peace.  Even in recent staff meetings we have talked frequently about peace, or, the lack of it. It seems appropriate, if not God-ordained, since peace is always on my mind but seldom in my heart.

Or, at least that is how it feels.

I've been drawn to two verses in the Bible.  One is the familiar promise (KJV is how I learned it) in          Isaiah  26:3 "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee". The other is Colossians 3:15 which instructs us to "Let the peace of God rule in your heart..." (NIV)

Sometimes I feel as if I am in engaged in a frenetic pursuit of peace.  That in itself seems exhausting and certainly futile.  There are mental exercises I attempt, scriptural promises I quote, meaningful conversations I engage...yet peace seems fleeting if not elusive.

I am also reading a book entitled, FEEL, which suggests we cannot ignore our emotions--that, in fact, they are by God's design inextricably tied to the intellectual process of rational decision-making.  What I tell   my self is that peace is not the absence of internal conflict but the assurance that God is on the scene no matter what I am feeling.

I have not resolved the enigma of peace this morning but here's where I am with respect to the two biblical passages that have been resonating in my heart for the last few weeks.

1.  Keeping my mind intentionally set on God in every circumstance and situation, and being attentive to what His Word says about who He is and what He can do, is an act of productive discipline.  My morning devotional prayer simply  was, "Lord, I receive the peace that is mine because you live within me."

2.  I continue to intellectually affirm that peace is the arbiter of my life--in my relationship with God, in my commitment to meaningful personal relationships, in my tackling of difficult decisions.

My pursuit of peace continues unsatisfactorily.

But my experience of peace, though only occasionally an emotional reality, is growing proportionately to my abandonment of human effort and my affirmation of God's abiding presence.