Faith Filled Family Magazine August 2016 | Page 100

will keep us from attempting to
fill the void that only God can fill.
How many times have we turned
to people, food, sex, and accomplishment seeking peace? Yet at
the end of the day we still feel
that void? The void remains until
we cultivate our relationship with
the Prince of Peace and until
His peace rests deep within our
souls.
Peace keeps us mindful of
who God is. When we pray for
peace, the way we think immediately shifts because we know
that we are praying to the One
who redeems our life from
destruction. Jesus calms the
storm and He calms us in the
storm, as we trust Him. Praying for peace allows us to hear
God more clearly and sensitize
our self to His voice because
we are making a choice to heed
His voice and not focus on the
circumstances. Peace allows
us to ignore untruths, it allows
us to remain steady and calm
under immense pressure, and
peace allows us to ignore outside voices that should not hold
influence.
Peace helps us pray more effectively because we are not praying from the standpoint of fear or
defeat; we are praying from the
standpoint of victory. We pray
knowing that all things are working for our good, we pray knowing that He has good plans for
us, plans to prosper us, not harm
us. We pray knowing that the
God of all peace will soon crush
Satan under our feet according
to Romans 16:20.

Peace promotes physical and
emotional health. In my late
twenties I experienced severe

back pain and there were a few
days where I had to leave work
because I could no longer walk.
The muscle relaxers did not work,
and the pain pills, massages and
chiropractic adjustments didn’t
work either. I prayed about the
pain but the pain remained so I
learned to live with it. With God’s
help, as I began to release the
deep-rooted bitterness and
unforgiveness, the pain ended.
In Matthew 18:34, the unmerciful servant who refused to
forgive was given over to the
tormentors. My unforgiveness
stole my peace and opened me
up to pain and torment. During
those years I slept eight to ten
hours each night and still awoke
tired and foggy-minded. Dealing
with the bitterness and unforgiveness allowed me