Mark and I walking toward the Castle Church in Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis.
Life gives us lots of opportunities to fret. Traveling can step up anxieties, particularly if flights are invlolved and unfamiliar surroundings. Recently we traveled to Europe. The first day we met up with a canceled flight that delayed our arrival at our final destination by six hours which resulted in a canceled rental car which doubled the price to rebook. Then we realized the place we had reserved for our six day stay was three hours from where we needed to be every day, but, it was too late to cancel. At the last minute finding a new place to stay was not easy with 1000 extra people visiting the small city of Wittenberg. Situations abounded to be in turmoil.
Even before we left on our trip the Lord heavily impressed on me this truth from Proverbs. "A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot." We have a pretty sharp contrast here. Actually, Proverbs talks a lot about the opposite effects in our lives of a peaceful, happy heart and a broken stressed spirit. But, how does a calm heart become reality?
Peace first comes to us when we have a right standing before God because of Jesus' death for us that wipes away all of our sin. Continued peace grows as we understand more of God's sovereignty over everything. God had perfect reasons for all of the situations we experienced as we began our trip to Germany--not to make us miserable, but, to cause us to trust Him more. The more we trust Him, the more tranquility of soul we experience. We have to have a meshing of our will with His. This is the center of perfect peace.
This past Saturday Ruth and I shared about the Reformation Conference and our visit to Ukraine. If you were unable to come to the Luncheon, you can still see what we presented at discoverybaptist.org ; go to Livestream for June 10th. Also, if you would like a copy of my notes that are full of quotes from our speakers in Wittenberg, feel free to email me at nancysuko@gmail.com and ask for them.