Perfect Peace

From A Poor Self-Image To A firm Foundation (1 Corinthian 3:1-23) "No matter what season we’re in, God offers His undeniable peace to those whose hearts are focused on Him." "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is 2everlasting strength. For He brings 3down those who dwell on high, The lofty city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He brings it down to the dust. The foot shall 4tread it down— The feet of the poor And the steps of the needy.” The way of the just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just." (Isaiah 26:3–7 NKJV) I find the wording and the over tone of the Bible very comforting, because even when it is dealing with judgment, there is a sense of God's compassion for those who are His followers. (Isaiah 26:3) says that God will give peace to those who have a steady and sure mind, I qiote, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” It does not matter, whether we are old or young, new babes in Christ or older and maturer spirituilly. God offers His peace to us if our hearts are focused on Him. But in that I also want to say, that if He wants us to change and do something different than what we are doing in the moment, He has a way of withholding a little of that peace to make us concider what He wants us to do. There will be an unrest in our soul, as God works on helping us choose His will. Having a poor self-image and low self-esteem has been a real hinderance over the years for my spiritual walk.. Many, many times it has shifted my focus off of God and in so doing I have been often wrapped up in self pitty, self-absorption, self-doubt, and full of fear of what others might say and think about how I have done something and what I look like to my boss or others who are observing my work. My self-esteem has really affected my spiritual walk by giving me a weak trust in God for a big part of my life and in others and in my prayer life as well, who was I to deserve a relationship with God? I have been very insecure in my personal life, in my marriage and in my carreer as a missionary and in whatever job I do. I have often second guessed the decissions I have made, I know that insecurity and self-doubt make it difficult to trust God's promises, to accept forgiveness and to receive grace and praise with any form of confidence. Therefore I have delt with being a people pleaser all my life, always willing to compermise to keep the peace. You see, when I did not feel I was worth anything, and my anchour was not secure in my spiritual idenity, I would turn to people approval and in seeking thier validation I would have to guard against moral compromise or dishonesty. I must admit it has been a long row to hoe. Walking this road has been a battle against getting a puffed up ego or going the other way, with low self-esteem where I would often find myself in a trap of running on a wheel, of wow is me where I would turn inward with self-pity, always comparing myself to others, this often brought envy and I couldn't have peace and couldn't enjoy the love and service I could have done or did do for others. I know that in this, I missed many of the blessing God bestowed upon me. My biggest growth happened when I relized I was valuable to God and that He wanted to use me and bless me in His work. My true true worth laid in my life being created in the divine image of God and my eternal identity was in Christ death on the cross. It was a free gift and I did not have to worry about earning that idenity through my performance, how I looked ofr how I acted or by who my friends were. As I grew in my spiritual walk, I have slowly shifted from dealing with low self-esteem to accepting the fact that I am totally accepted by God just as I am. I had to set goals to intentionally move away from self-peservation and comparring myself with others to seeking to please God and God alone, and if I felt God would be pleased with the job I had done, then I would find myself at peace. My identification became that fact that I was here to serve God and if I felt He was happy than I could be as well. It has basically been a road of taking my eyes off myself, and turning them towards God, focus on helping others, loving them with purpose and with the intent of helping the community at large. Due to this struggle, I have had to deal with mental highs and lows most of my life. Whenever my low self-esteem kicked in I would fall into a depressive state of mind. Thinking, will I be fired, will the boss not be happy, will I get another chance, do I want another chance, should I quit? This depresive state would make me feel isolated and alone, feeling no one would ever want to be with or have a guy like me working with them. After thinking about suicide and actually moving towardss it, God intervened my wife came alonf=g side, and brouf=ght value to my life in a time when in and of myself I had none. Following this atempt came a lot of help from a good number of people, who I found truely carred. From that time many years ago until present I believe I have continued to gain strue Godly self-esteem and am much stringer in my spiritual mind, but still some days are a struggle when things are not going well. But I am thankful over all that I have been able to be an encourager for others, to also seek to walk better in their spiritual walk,and to see they too are created in the image of God and they have value. When we have a sound mind as a wise goal the bible tells us, that it is a gift from a loving God a God who cares and will never leave us nor forsake us. Isaiah says to God, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”(26:3 nlt). There words comfort my soul as they are promising me security in times of great struggle. I is good to see sin and rebellion on the run, and rather than being turned away from God I am now being turned towrds the very heart of God, which leaves my thoughts and mind in a peaceful state rather than in turmoil. I have taken to heart, what Isaiah urges us to do. To, “Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock” (v. 4 nlt). I have learned that I need to build my life on a firm foundation who is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3: tells me that is whay we must do, to lay up treaisures in heaven. Now, just as I have come to a place where during anxious times I can trust God along my earths road. So can you, we are all on a road of growth, and God wants us to learn to fully trust Him. We need to fix our minds eye on Him and point our trust to our daily peace in Jesus and His great forgiveness of all of our weaknesses, and we can depend on Him as our firm foundation and stand strong in Him. Lord Jesus, trusting in You, God helps me find the peace I need in life. There is no amount of worry that will change anything. So I pray help me to hand all of my worries over to you, moment nby moment day by day. I ask you today for wisdom and quiet peaceful mental attitude about my trials and struggles, and take them and lay them at your feet. Dear God and Heavenly Father,I trust in You. It is in your name I pray AMEN