Peace is not natural to me; it is a choice I return to again and again. Sometimes minute by minute.
I am not beyond anxiety, but I desire to learn to choose Peace – the Abundant Life.

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

There is a reason this part of the Abundant Life series is difficult for me to write.
I have lived much of my life in worry — the steady stream of what if’s.
What if this happens? What if that falls apart?
What if God does not carry me through what I fear most?

Years ago, I stopped in the middle of those questions and asked one honest question back:
Is my God able to meet me inside the what ifs?

That moment changed my thinking. Peace was no longer just an idea; it became personal. The answer was not a plan, a guarantee, or control — it was the I AM Himself. Yet peace remains one of the believer’s greatest struggles and often keeps us from experiencing the abundant life God promises.

For a long time, I quietly believed I was unqualified to speak about peace. You may have felt this as well. My days often look ordinary, and I measured my understanding against those walking visible suffering — devastating illness, shattered futures, irreversible change. Their peace seemed weightier than mine.

But Scripture does not measure peace by the size of the crisis. God gives what is needed for the hour we are living in. The grace required for catastrophe is not the same grace required for daily fears and disappointments — yet both come from the same faithful hand.

Peace is not proven by surviving the worst moment; it is learned by trusting God in the present one.

Two Truths found in God’s Word:

Galatians 5:22–23 Tells us peace is fruit produced by the Spirit. Without His transforming work, we cannot possess it; He must cultivate it, and we must yield to that cultivation.

Colossians 3:15 Tells us the peace of God is to rule in our hearts.
To rule means it decides the outcome.

Left to ourselves, we rule differently. We pray for safety from loss, illness, disruption, and grief, yet life in a fallen world does not cooperate. Circumstances intrude, stability fractures, and control fails.

In those moments, we face a choice: will I live under this reality, or under God’s peace within it?

Peace is not a passive activity. It is surrender — allowing God to be correct even when life is not comfortable. It is letting go of the demand that life unfold according to our will rather than His.

Few things test faith more deeply than this.

Philippians 4:6–7 does not promise removal of what troubles us but something else – a peace that guards, a garrison over heart and mind.
This connects to the shield of faith in Ephesians 6:16, not preventing arrows from being fired but preventing them from penetrating.

Sorrow will exist.
Fear will knock.
Uncertainty will speak.
But they do not get the final word.

We must remember that abundant life is not defined by ease but by a settled soul. Peace is not a one-time attainment but a daily choosing — yielding to the Spirit instead of rehearsing fear; trusting God’s will instead of demanding our own.

The same peace that sustains believers in tragedy sustains believers in the ordinary.
Both are real.
Both are God’s work.
God’s peace is not merely possible for abundant living.
It is the life Christ offers today, in whatever today holds.

Choose to let His peace rule, and live abundantly.

Please join us for our Abundant Life Series each week. You may access the Word Study Guide for Peace here or in the Deep Dive section of our website.