Keeping the Peace
That hassled feeling. When it comes, how do we get back to that
calm centre where peace rules? Eugene
Peterson (who wrote ‘The Message’ bible) offers a good insight. He says that in worship we put God at the
centre of our lives, whereas our normal sinful tendency is to arrange the world
around ourselves, each striving to be the centre. And when the world refuses – how dare things
not work out the way I want! But God is
the only true Centre. And we only get
right with ourselves and the world when we arrange our lives around him, as in
worship (at least, when we’re focussing on God). So, if feeling hassled indicates that God is
not currently our Centre, what can we do about it?
We can resolutely remind
ourselves that God is Creator and Ruler of all, and that when we put ourselves
in his care, accepting his forgiveness through Jesus, we promise to obey his
leading in the Spirit – that’s worship.
It puts the Lord back at the Centre: we can look to him for guida…