Eugene H. Peterson translates it this way in The Message:
"Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."
(By the way, the scripture quotes I share I often get from Biblegateway.com. That is an incredible site. It doesn't just have scripture from all sorts of translations. It also offers devotionals and verses of the day).
This morning I read Psalm 55:18a which says, "He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me."
Everyone of us has our own battles we fight, within and without. Things that are a battle to one person aren't to another. Our battles are battles because of who we are, our souls and the stories our lives are playing out.
I've been keeping journals since my freshman year in high school. I started writing them at age 14 and I am now 50. So, it's been a while. A few times in my life I've thrown a bunch away. I no longer have my teen journals. When I'd reread those I would get irritated with my silliness (but maybe I should have kept them). And I threw a lot away from when I was first married (again, maybe I should have kept them).
Through them I can see spiritual growth, but I also see myself fighting the same battles over and over.
Sometimes we fight the same battles again because we haven't learned what we need to learn, but I think the real truth of it is is that our individual souls have bents toward certain things in life -- certain temptations, certain needs, certain desires that we have to learn to deal with our entire lives. We will get to a place of victory but then rediscover the same battle in a different season, maybe in a deeper place, a place where God is fine-tuning us. A kind of refinement that is teaching a deeper truth about ourselves and God and our desperate need for Him the closer we get to Him. As we mature in the faith we will get a keener understanding of how great our need is for Christ.
Remember when the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus? The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. They reminded Jesus the law says the woman should be stoned (by the way, where was the man she was with????). What would Jesus do?
At first He stayed silent and wrote in the dirt. But they kept pushing Him. So finally He stood up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." John 8:7
Scripture then says, "And when they heard it, they began to (leave), beginning with the older ones." John 8:9a
The older people left first -- they understood what they themselves were and were able to admit it first (when they left they admitted to all that they too were sinners).
I love fairy tales. I've loved them my entire life. And I've thought of life in terms of fairy tales as long as I can remember. I was the princess and I'd be loved by a prince and we would live happily ever after (you can see where that might cause a few struggles when a person has to live in this world). One of my favorite authors who has written many novels based loosely on fairy tales (they are stories with obvious fairy tale elements in them -- I dream of writing one of these stories one day) is Robin McKinley. I've read and reread a few of her books. She said in an interview that writers write the same story over and over in different forms. I think this is indicative of our own life stories. We live and relive our struggles and our triumphs. They come in different forms but often they are rooted in the same issues, issues we wrestle with our entire lives. And that's okay. We are human. We fail. We see victory. We are refined and then God puts us back in the fire for more refinement.
Oh, I pray God gives you great peace and contentment as you read this. You are where God wants you to be. Just love Him and those He puts in your life. And enjoy what He gives you. Use your talents to bless Him and others and to bless yourself (God gets great joy out of seeing His children enjoying life). Your story is one that is changing your world. Don't ever doubt that!