Inner peace through an implicit trust in the love of God
is the real evidence of a mature Christian faith. (1)
Inner peace eludes us because we pursue it in venues in which it cannot be found. It will never be found at the store, in the office, or under a trophy. It can not be purchased, achieved, or won. It can only be received.
Inner peace can only be found in the company of faith. Thus, it is accessible to all. You do not need privilege, wealth, or luck to have it. In fact, these things have prevented many people from finding inner peace.
My friend Earl had inner peace.
In the eight years I knew him, I never saw him out of bed. He spoke between shots of air delivered to his lungs by a ventilator. He could not tend to any of his personal needs.
While Earl was was totally dependent upon others to provide all of his physical and worldly needs, his mind and heart had been spared the disease which ravaged his body.
Earl could have given up, but he did not.
He could have instructed his doctors to pull-the-plug, but he did not.
He could have spewed anger, despair, and resentment on anyone who entered his room, but he did not.
Instead Earl was the happiest man I ever met.
In contrast to Job who moped, whined, and raged when his worldly possessions and loves were stolen by an evil twist of fate, Earl smiled, praised God, and rejoiced after disease robbed him of anything which looked like quality of life.
Earl had a peace which surpassed all understanding because he had faith in God. This peace, his companion in faith, guarded his heart and his mind. (2)
Earl’s faith grew while his body decayed.
Earl knew that his body would not last forever, it does not for any of us. Thus, he placed his whole life into the hands of Jesus. When troubles came and health declined, Earl found peace not in little things, but in the great and wondrous grace of God.
When Earl died, we sang Horatio Spafford’s great hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul” (Click the title to hear this great hymn.)
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well with my soul. (3)
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Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996), 202.
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Philippians 4:7.
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Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996), 202.
Bread Crumbs - Devotions for Life 
Earl’s outlook on life is the result of his faith and trust in God. We could all learn from his example. He was able to look beyond the temporary into the eternal. I know that I myself fall short here.
The mistake many Christian people make though, when viewing the suffering of others, is to assume that they should always be content in it, and that any discontent shown by them is a sign of immaturity or of personal sin in their lives. This is not necessarily true. If it were true, God would never instruct us to relieve the suffering of others, or to have compassion on them, or to meet their needs, or to undo heavy burdens. Here Christians must be careful in their judgments of others and the situations they find themselves in. Compassion is one of the great attributes of the One we follow, and we must be like Him.
Dan, you are correct that as Christians we should always extend compassion to those who suffer.
What I learned from Earl was that he had good reasons to be discontent and not at peace. If he had been an angry man, no one would had blamed him.
Perhaps I should have mentioned this in the post, but the lesson for me to learn is that all of us have an issue or two which we allow (use) to keep us from ever having inner peace.
I know what my 2 issues are. Everyone knows theirs. At the drop of a hat I can let these two issues rob me of all the joy and peace God wants me to have. When I do this, I am hurting myself, I am being ungrateful for all God has done for me, I am minimizing the sacrifice of Jesus, and I am inflicting my misery upon others. Earl absolutely refused to do this because He knew that God’s best plan for his life today was nothing compared the to life God had planned for him into eternity.
We expect too much out of this life. Thus, we set ourselves up for disappointment and discontent. This life is a vehicle for getting to eternity. The inner peace comes in knowing God has a great eternity established for us. Inner peace never comes from temporal events, which includes everything in this life.
Blessings, Rus