In his book, Peace of Mind, Joshua Liebman writes of an experience he had when he was still a boy. "I made a list of the supreme goods in life," Liebman said.
"Went to a wise mentor and I showed him the list expecting to be praised for my precocity. The list went something like this … health, love, talent, riches, beauty, and faith. As I shared the list with the old wise man, he reached for a stub of a pencil, and carefully scratched through all of the things that I had listed.
He said, "Young man, you may have all of these--health, love, faith, riches, beauty -- but they will all turn out to be enemies instead of friends unless you have the one thing you missed." Then he wrote on the paper, "The gift of an untroubled mind."
From what I read and hear it appears that so many people (at least in our modern society) are plagued by depression, heartbreak, worry, anxiety, fear, and impaired relationships. And (compared to most of the world) we have just about every material benefit and human comfort we want, except so many don't have peace of mind.
There are two kinds of peace we all need in order to fully live. First, and most important of all, is spiritual peace knowing that our sins are forgiven, and we have God's promise of a home in heaven for all eternity. This gift from God is absolutely free and comes from admitting our "Tawba" - repenting to God due to performing any sins and misdeeds. It is a direct matter between a person and God, so there is no intercession.
The other kind of peace we could call emotional or relational peace. This comes from resolving any and all impaired relationships, forgiving any and all who have ever hurt us, and resolving any and all negative emotions--especially super-charged repressed negative emotions which are destroyers of both emotional and physical wellbeing and extremely destructive of personal relationships.
Dear God,
Please help me to see andresolve
anything in my life
that is causing me
to have a troubled mind.
Please fill me with your love
and help me to know and experience
your eternal peace in the very center
of my being.
Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.
No comments:
Post a Comment