Fear and Peace

*Joy Beyond the Cross writes about this book here!*
**The Reed of God study will return next Thursday.  If you have catching up to do, click here.**


Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Father Jacques Philippe had been on my Amazon wish list for almost a year.  I ordered some books a few weeks ago (including two copies of the Power of a Praying Parent for birth mom and dad...sigh) and needed something small to bump my order over $25 and get the free shipping.  So this finally made it in my cart.  When it arrived, I remember thinking, "I bet there's a reason I have this now.  I wonder if I'm going to need it."  At the time I thought I'd need it to get through those 48 hours.  Now I see I needed it to get through this time of mourning.  (Thank you, Lord, for your provision!)

It's a simple book with 110 pages jam-packed with wisdom.  The first chapter of part two is titled The Troubles of Life and the Fear of Being Without.  I think he wrote it just for me.  He writes:

"The most common reason for which we could lose our sense of peace is a fear caused by certain situations which touch us personally and in which we feel threatened, apprehensions in the face of present or future difficulties, fear of lacking something important, of not succeeding in such and such a project, and so forth." Pg. 23

"In fact, in each instance, it concerns a good" (pg. 23) he goes on to say.  Isn't this true for all of us? 

• We fear being barren. 
• We fear another adoption falling through. 
• We fear that we'll NEVER have children- that our family will never grow.
• We fear that our lives will somehow be incomplete.
• We fear for the children we (you) do have- for our husbands, parents and siblings. 
• We fear for our country and our future.

Worry, worry, worry...fear, fear, fear...It all robs us of our peace.  And everything we worry about concerns a good.  It is good that we want children and that we want them to grow healthy, holy and good.  But what control do we really have?  Do our worries and fears solve anything?

"It is not by making certain calculations and preoccupations that one is going to find a solution.  But who of you can add any time to your life by all his worrying? (Matthew 6:27)  Man is never assured of obtaining anything, and everything which he holds in his hands can easily slip from his grasp from one day to the next; there is no guarantee on which he can count on absolutely."  (Page 24)

"One could even say that the surest way to lose one's peace is precisely to try to assure one's own life solely with the aid of human industry, with personal projects and decisions or by relying on something else.  In what state of anxiety and torment does one place himself who thus seeks to save himself..." pg. 24

This is exactly what I encountered for the month leading up to Caeden Michael's adoption.  Every time I started to analyze the situation and try to evaluate its success rate, I'd go tumbling into darkness.  Over and over, the Lord has told me to trust Him NOW.  In this moment.  Don't get ahead of yourself.  "TRUST ME."

"We have only one solution: We must rely on  God alone, with total trust in Him, as Your heavenly Father knows what you need (Matthew 6:32)."

Help me, Lord.  Help me to trust you. Help me to be in this moment with you. You are the great I AM.  Let my response the same as Mary's- "I am your handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done unto me according to Your Word."  Luke 1:38

"Our great drama is this: Man does not have confidence in God.  Hence he looks in every possible place to extricate himself by his own resources and renders himself terribly unhappy in the process rather than abandon himself into the tender and saving hands of his Father in heaven."  (pg. 26)

Praying that today you and I will abandon ourselves into the tender and saving hands of our Father in Heaven.