Silas
Beloved of All
The discomfort you’re feeling with certain coworkers isn’t random, and it isn’t outside of God’s hand. So often he uses these very situations to work in us before he can work through us. When he begins to chip away at our rough edges, we can squirm and even cry out. But what he’s doing is preparing you for what he has next, the good work he designed for you to walk in. Don’t run from it. Let him refine what he needs to refine, even when you don’t understand why a particular edge has to go. His plan for you is bigger than this moment.
This is where peace is won or lost, and not only peace with others but peace with God himself. If you’re at war within your own heart, it will spill into every relationship. But the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable. Christ himself is our peace. He has already broken down the dividing wall. When you make peace with God through the finished work of Jesus, that peace settles your inner turmoil. And only then can you stand before difficult coworkers with a quiet heart. The work of righteousness, being made right with God and then living rightly with others, produces peace. The effect of that righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. You can have that.
Be careful where you set your gaze. Unbelief always grows from staring at yourself and the circumstances. If you look at the strength of your own patience or the size of the problem, you’ll conclude there’s no way through. But when you look to the Lord who began this work in you, you can be confident he will complete it. He is the God of peace, and he doesn’t just give peace as a gift detached from himself; he is your peace. Wait on him. Our impatience so often gets in the way of what he is doing. If you wait long enough, you will see him work it out in ways you couldn’t engineer on your own.
I am praying that you will truly know the peace that passes understanding keeping your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, so that others may not even grasp how you can be so steady in a strained workplace. Let him do his deeper work, and watch him bring about what he has purposed for his glory.
This is where peace is won or lost, and not only peace with others but peace with God himself. If you’re at war within your own heart, it will spill into every relationship. But the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable. Christ himself is our peace. He has already broken down the dividing wall. When you make peace with God through the finished work of Jesus, that peace settles your inner turmoil. And only then can you stand before difficult coworkers with a quiet heart. The work of righteousness, being made right with God and then living rightly with others, produces peace. The effect of that righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. You can have that.
Be careful where you set your gaze. Unbelief always grows from staring at yourself and the circumstances. If you look at the strength of your own patience or the size of the problem, you’ll conclude there’s no way through. But when you look to the Lord who began this work in you, you can be confident he will complete it. He is the God of peace, and he doesn’t just give peace as a gift detached from himself; he is your peace. Wait on him. Our impatience so often gets in the way of what he is doing. If you wait long enough, you will see him work it out in ways you couldn’t engineer on your own.
I am praying that you will truly know the peace that passes understanding keeping your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, so that others may not even grasp how you can be so steady in a strained workplace. Let him do his deeper work, and watch him bring about what he has purposed for his glory.
