Friday, September 5, 2014

Personal Peace Amidst Trials



Personal peace is different than the kind of peace we normally think of. Normally, we think of peace as being the absence of trouble, trials, and fear, but the kind of peace Christ offers us is that we will have peace in our hearts, even with the trials of life still going on. I've noticed that God doesn't often take burdens away from people as frequently as He makes people strong enough to bear their burdens. In a similar way, He's more likely to give us peace in our hearts than peace in our lives. Now, that may not seem very comforting to those of us who would rather obtain peace by having our trials removed, but God always does what's in our best interest, whether that's what we prayed for or not. But whether God calms the storms in our lives or whether He lets the storm rage while He calms His child, the effect, internally, is the same. And externally, we become stronger and more patient as we continue to endure our troubles, so it's really a win-win situation. Through the power of the Atonement and through righteous living, we can experience the positive results of trials without having to suffer too much from the negative effects of trials, whereas if our trials had simply been removed from us, sure we wouldn't suffer the effects of our trials, but we also wouldn't get the results. Through the grace of Christ, we can have our growth experiences and have peace, too. In reality, giving us personal peace during our trials is an even greater miracle than simply taking our trials away.

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