Hi. Happy and Blessed Tuesday to you all!

It took me a few more days, but I’m so happy to be back behind my keyboard to write to you about a topic that has been such a process (among other things) that I have been dealing with for a long time.

The most common phrase that I’ve heard, as I have dealt with many difficult circumstances in life, is “no dejes que eso te robe la paz” which is translated to “don’t let that rob you of peace”.

And it’s such an easy thing to say, but what even is peace?

It’s been known worldwide as a certain symbol that we’ve all seen somewhere around us with the message of unity between humanity and a still state of pure bliss.

As I’ve been in a constant cycle of anxiety taking over when stressful times arise, it doesn’t go without saying that I’ve thought I’ve found true peace when the anxiety died down. The most eye-opening thing I’ve experienced is that peace is not a temporary solution to your problem nor is it what the world shows you to be, especially how it’s been portraited as throughout the years with the community of people who are deep into psychedelics and things of that likeness.

If you know me, you know I like to throw in some Bible facts and background information, so here we go!

In the Bible, Shalom (shaw-lome’) is the Hebrew word for peace, and it means completeness, soundness, and welfare, according to Strong’s concordance. It is derived from the root word shalam (shaw-lame), which means to make amends, whole, or complete.

We see the first mention of peace in the Old Testament in Genesis 15:15 :

“As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.”

Genesis 15:15

The Greek word eiréné (i-ray’-nay) is translated as “peace” in the New Testament. Strong’s Concordance defines eiréné as one, harmony, quietness, and rest. It comes from the root word eir, which means “to join” or “to tie together.”

In the New Testament, we see peace appear first in Matthew 10:13:

“And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.”

Matthew 10:13

In Isaiah 9:6, right at the end, we’re given a beautiful description of Christ and Who He is described as:

For to us a child is born to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

PRINCE OF PEACE

That is exactly what Christ is and exactly how I’ve found Him as I’ve been on the road to true peace.

I’m not one to shy away from the things I’ve experienced in life and writing it down on paper, so to be truthful as to why it’s taken me to this point, please understand that I’m nowhere near a perfect life (nor will I ever be on this earth I call temporal home).

Those who know me and have known my journey with college through these last three years should know that college has never been easy for me. I failed my first year in college due to statistics, business economics, and math and it took me basically two years to then barely pass that first year to continue on to my second year with a Marketing & Business major. Around December of last year, I was on the verge of just dropping out and pursuing something completely different before ultimately deciding to stay after many talks.

And through all of that, my anxiety was through the roof during that time, not to mention the depression that had me caved in my room most of the time. I couldn’t comprehend why I had to go through all of this and question so many things, but peace.

After much prayer, I found that I was focusing on all the wrong things and not letting go of many things in my life (fear of failure, insecurity, etc.) that were holding me back from pursuing my future career. Many circumstances had presented themselves during those times that I no longer knew what I was even doing on the island anymore, and perhaps it was time for me to jump on over back to the Netherlands and start all over.

But I truly believe God knew what He was doing with me during this time and I understood that I had to go through these few devastating months of pure fear as to what I’ll be doing with my life if I truly fail at pursuing a Bachelor career and never be able to amount to anything in life.

Being far from the Word of God was not helping me in any way and even consuming my mind with social media and lives of others I “wish to be like” was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a couple of Bible verses on Peace, but there’s one I always go back to and like to be reminded of and it’s in John 14:27 after Jesus has proclaimed He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one would get to the Father if not through Him (John 14:6). In this verse 27, it says this:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

John 14:27

Jesus was talking to His disciples about the promise of the Holy Spirit that would be given unto them when Jesus was ascended to heaven. Today, we know as believers in Christ, that when we confess Christ as our Lord and Savior and believe it in our hearts that He was raised from death to life, we will truly be saved:

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Romans 10:9-10

Not only is Jesus the Prince of Peace, but He has provided us with the Holy Spirit that dwells in us to give us peace in the midst of troubles and circumstances. Only when I truly understood this and prayed the Lord would always remind me of His peace was when I truly understood what peace meant and how I could have it.

pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

Prayer sounds like such an easy thing to do, because you’re literally talking to the heavenly Father, however, it’s the thing we do the least. From the moment we wake up and understand that we are taking a breath because of Him, we should be praying and giving thanks in all circumstances. Not only that, it is the WILL of God for our lives that we are in constant prayer and thanksgiving.

Ephesians 6:10-20 describes the Armor of God and the last piece of armor listed there is prayer and it’s the most power piece of weapon that is also the weapon that enables all the other pieces altogether. Verse 18 says this:

“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

Ephesians 6:10-20

So, peace is not just a feeling of rest, bliss, or stillness. It is the description of a person who laid down His life for you and for me, because we were separated from God due to the fall of sin. This man called Jesus from Nazareth lived a sinless life and led a three-year ministry teaching and preparing His disciples for what was to come, leaving behind beautiful teachings we get to live by as examples of Him who was then betrayed and crucified, to later resurrect, giving us the gift of eternal life because of the shedding of blood. Jesus then ascended into heaven and is now preparing a place for those who have put their trust in the King of kings and Lord of lords that is mighty to save.

And if you are not yet a believer, I urge you to read God’s Word (the Bible) and seek Him with all your heart, because you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). And if you’re living in sin, repent from it and turn to Christ and His grace.

If you are a believer and you’ve found yourself in a state of discomfort and no peace, please look for brothers or sisters in Christ that can help you, talk with you about what you’re going through, pray for you, but most importantly, take it all to God in prayer and seek His guidance through the Holy Spirit to help you navigate through it all. If you find yourself not letting go of sin, I urge you as well to repent and set your eyes on Christ once again.

And don’t think that just doing one part, means you shouldn’t do the other. Better your habits! Here are some tips that have helped me:

• Plan your week out and set up daily tasks: I have been always planning out my weeks, but never finishing everything, because I don’t set daily tasks to do to get me on the right track
• Try setting limits to your social media use: I just set app limits in the settings on my iPhone and I also have a downtime at 10pm every night so I don’t have to use my phone after that
• If you’re someone who can’t be home much when studying or doing homework, go to the library or call up some friends to join you if you can’t go alone. Do some zoom sessions with some friends if you can’t leave your home (especially with this ongoing pandemic).
• Hang out with friends and family once in a while, take your mind off the stress you may be accumulating.
• Exercise! I cannot tell you how much exercising has helped me with my mental health.
• Pray, pray, pray and feed yourself with the Word of God! Look for others in the faith that can help you or search for an accountability partner (pray for God to show you the right person who can help you)

And there are more tips I can probably give later on as I update you on how this journey to finding true peace of God. I highly recommend doing devotionals about peace (or any other topic you might be interested in). I have my top three devotionals right here that I have loved doing:

1. Oswald Chambers: Peace – Life in the Spirit (highly recommend)
2. Tony Evans: Peace of Christ
3. Charles F. Stanley – Finding Peace

There’s a quote I want to share from the Oswald Chambers devotional that I absolutely love and want to share with you:

The path of peace for us is to hand ourselves over to God and ask Him to search us, not what we think we are, or what other people think we are, or what we persuade ourselves we are or would like to be, but, “Search me out, O God, explore me as I really am in Thy sight.”

Oswald Chambers

Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to read what’s been on my heart to share with you all! Here’s one more verse, and with that I leave you:

“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

2 Corinthians 13:11

Blessings.

Yours Sincerely,

Clouds.

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