He uses EVERYTHING

After the most excruciating painful day of his life he laid his head on his pillow. He told me he barely slept the few hours before he had to go back to the hospital. He never even wanted to leave, but every soul needs rest.
He rose before the sun, like he normally does. As he walked into the hotel bathroom looking at his exhausted self in the mirror it was the the most unlikely thing that God would use to speak to him that morning. As he feared what the day ahead may bring, he did not even know what to pray anymore. But there it was. It was so clear. Not a coincidence. Perfectly for him. Perfectly loved.

God as plain as the day said, "be still".

Do you see it?

 

I was already at the hospital with my friend that morning when he walked in to see his baby girl. She wasn't really awake yet. It has been a wild last 24 hours and every minute her heart beat we praised God. She had survived a massive heart attack, barely. The whole story has may parts that I can't wait to share. It is one where I have been on the receiving end of watching and learning through someones suffering and pain. God taught me much though this story.

"This One will be our peace" Micah 5:5

"Peace isn’t a place, Peace is a Person. Peace is not a Place you escape to out of your every day life, but a Person you walk with every day." - Ann Voscamp

Her daddy walked in and smiled looking at her. There were hugs and some good news that she made it through another night. And then he shared the story. When he couldn't pray anymore and he no longer knew what to say, in his complete anguish and fear, God spoke to him in a hotel toiletry bottle.  It wasn't that he know at that moment that everything would turn out ok, but he told me he knew at that moment that this was in God's hands. The peace was the presence of God. It's knowing God is in the story even if the story isn't written the way we want it to look. I wrote a lot over those days at the hospital. This is one story I wont ever forget.

Friends as you may question your circumstances this Christmas season, wondering and wishing it all looked different. Be still. See and know that your true peace has come. And not only that he came, but that he came to die.. for YOU, and he's coming again to save you.  It's the PEACE of God that surpasses our human understanding, that is probably my single most requested prayer for my friends moving through suffering and pain. Peace is available for you today. What are you waiting for? "

...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Phil. 4

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

"You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on you,

    because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3

"Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." Isaiah 9:7

"The reason we hope for the grand finale at the end of history is because the little Baby born in Bethlehem, flanked by animals and laid in a splintery manger, grew up to become the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knew suffering, not from a distance but up close. He didn’t give us an answer to satisfy all our questions. He gave us himself to satisfy all our hurts, to take away our sins, to wipe away our tears, to strip away our sorrows.

The angels sang “glory to God in the highest” because they were stunned by the beauty of the incarnation. But even they couldn’t have imagined what would happen next, how that little Boy in Bethlehem would grow up in Nazareth, the son of a carpenter, familiar with wood, and in just three decades time, would crawl up a hill outside Jerusalem to be hung on a tree.

The Son of God wasn’t just born to live; he was born to die. And the God of life willingly died a rebel’s death. Why? For the glory of God and for peace on earth. To save sinners like you and me.

Christmas leads to the cross, and the redemption accomplished for us at the cross is so great that the apostle Peter says even the angels long to look at our salvation because it’s too marvelous to comprehend.

The Christian knows more of the glory of God and the peace he brings than even the angels do. Our sins and sorrows and sufferings are covered by the blood of Jesus. Sentimentality won’t solve our sin problem; only salvation will do that. And only Jesus, the Savior who knows what it’s like to be scarred, can heal our hurts and wounds.

So, next time you hear Gloria in excelsis deo, remember what led the angels to sing, and then join your weary voice to their refrain."

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/singing-peace-earth-heart-heavy/