Want to Know the Secret to Peace?

This is the promise:

I am the Lord your God.

I am holding your right hand.

And I tell you, ‘Don’t be afraid.

I will help you.’

Isaiah 41:13

God IS always holding my right hand through all my difficulties, all my fears, all my anxieties, all my everything.

God tells us to not be afraid, that He will help us.

So why then do we still feel afraid, anxious and worried?

I've been thinking about this question a lot lately. I think the answer might lie in what the left hand is doing.

CONTROL:

We hold onto problems - sometimes so tightly that our knuckles turn red and blue. Our fears often turn us inward so that we believe that only WE alone can control the outcome. Maybe if we just protect "them" more or focus on "it" harder, we can control what happens or prevent the worst from happening.

We can all think of that one person, that one situation, that one dream that we can't release our grip on, even though it is clear to us that we are losing control.

So often for us moms, that one person is our adult children. The reality is that when they were children, we really did control a lot - what they ate, what they wore, who they saw, where they went. But once they reach adulthood, all control is gone. It's hard.

We can hold on to the fantasy that we are still in control.

We can get lost in rewriting history "If only I had...".

Maybe for you it's not your children, but your spouse, your job, your parents, your colleagues...

LET GO:

Then, often in desperation, we read God's promises. We take hold of His right hand with our right hand. We let go of the grip we have on "it" with our right hand and cling to God's right hand. This should bring us relief, peace, assurance.... and it does...for a while. But...soon worry, anxiety, fear creep back in.

Why?

I believe the answer lies in our left hand?

I know when I am overwhelmed I cling tightly with both hands. Maybe you are like me, when I hold tight to my worry, my anxiety, my fear. I go all in!

Then, I turn to God's Word and confidently let go of my grip. I clasp God's right hand with my right hand. I actually visualize holding God's hand.

But... my left hand often remains tightly gripped to controlling the outcome, the situation, and/or the person.

Maybe we are not experiencing the peace that surpasses all understanding because we haven't really let go? We still have a tight grip on "it" with our left hand.

Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power

than defending or hanging on.

Eckhart Tolle

TRUST:

We say we trust God and believe that He is working behind the scenes for our good.

Unfortunately, we are not experiencing the peace and confidence of that trust if we are still clinging with our left hand to the worry, the anxiety, and the control.

We need to very consciously pull each finger off from our grip and fully release it all to God.

Trust will come when we raise our left hand in praise and prayer to God, as we hold fast with our right hand to His right hand. Peace.

The happiest people I know are the ones who have learned

how to hold everything loosely and have given the worrisome, stress-filled,

fearful details of their lives into God's keeping.

Charles Swindoll