I read the following question today.
Looking back on your journey and knowing what you know now, what is one piece of advice you would have given yourself along the way?
Answer: Lean into the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit.
Over the past 28 years of ministry I would have to be honest and say there have been times when I have lost sleep when I shouldn’t have. I would have to say I have gone on food eating binges when I should have been running marathons. I would say there have been times when I started polling my friends to see what they would do in my situation when I should have simply leaned into the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit.
There have been times when things weren’t going fast enough to suit me so I did everything in my power to speed them up. Then there were times when things were going so fast that I was scared so I did everything in my power to slow them down. What I should have done is simply lean into the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit.
There have been times when people said bad things about me that weren’t true and I did everything in my power to head them off and assure people that it wasn’t true. Then there have been times when people said bad things about me that were true and I lost sleep. What I should have done is simply lean into the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit.
There have been times when I struggled with a decision that needed to be made. Should I buy this piece of property? Should I sell this house? Should I buy a new car? Should I buy that new computer? Should I take a vacation?
What I should have done is simply pray and lean into the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit.
You see, the Bible teaches us that we have a helper, someone who comes to reside in us when we become a follower of Jesus. That someone has the ability and even the mission of helping us to make the right decisions. If, when we have a decision to make, we would simply go first to the scriptures to see what God has to say about a matter and if the particular matter isn’t mentioned then we will be able to find teaching around the general principle of the matter and we will know without a doubt what it is that we are supposed to do, or what would be the best decision. You see, it is the presence of the perfect peace of God that lets us know what the right decision is. It is the presence of the perfect peace of God in the midst of what seems to most to be something we should be losing sleep over.
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3 NLT
If you ask me if you should make this decision or that, I would ask you, do you have the witness of The Holy Spirit? I would ask you, do you have perfect peace in the way you think you should go? And if your answer is no, then you have the best advice I could give and that would be to say yes or no accordingly.
I don’t lose sleep these days when it comes to knowing what God’s will is. I live in perfect peace.
Pastor Ronnie