🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

Many years ago, I had a profound encounter with God that's stuck with me. My loving Father said, "Daughter, you never have to live in chaos." Simultaneously, a picture flashed in my mind of myself in a room with laundry spread out, toys strewn recklessly, and a complete absence of order. I hadn't even met my husband yet, and the picture didn't match my life at the time. But it often does now.

This week, I told my husband that life's chaos feels too loud to breathe - like I've been swept up in a current that's carried me out so far I can't see the shore. Returning to the word from God, I said, "God told me I didn't have to live in chaos at a time when I had never even tasted chaos." My husband responded, "When I met you, your life was SO chaotic. You just didn't know it because you were consumed with gratitude."

That weighty and healing truth hit me hard. I was as single mom, living in a dangerous, remote community when I met my husband. I drove my 4x4 through rural communities, extending emergency care and facing unspeakable spiritual opposition. I was developing ministries, navigating foreign government systems, and catching spitting cobras in my shower. But there was order inside of me. I lived in perfect peace. It didn't matter if I woke up to a riot outside my door or another week without running water. Chaos had no claim on me.

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you... Do not let your heart be troubled... [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.]" (John 14:27 AMP)

Despite what I've been feeling, chaos still has no claim on me - or you. Jesus gives storm-stilling, chaos-conquering peace that overrides the things of this world. The hardships don't have to stop for peace to prevail. For me, that is an enormous relief and another sign of amazing grace. We don't have to get things right first. We are right when we are with Him.

Listen to "Desperate" by Mosaic MSC.