We can't much control what goes on in the world around us even though we may try. How often does trying to control the world around us actually work? We can set effective goals for our self and follow through with readiness and dexterity. We can perform our daily duties skillfully. We can serve others with compassion. But if we try to control the results of what we do or hold on to the details of what happens with too much tenacity, we can end up feeling very stressed. We can't always control the outer world. But we can control ourselves. We can experience peace within ourselves no matter what is going on around us.
How is it possible? John 14:27 says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Peace not as the world gives seems to be the key here and is where most of us miss the mark. We keep trying to make the world give us peace even though we can't control the world. So what can we control?
We can control our attitude about situations and events. We can control our responses to other people. We can control our behavior. We can control what we think and what we say. God gave us will power. He gave us a free will to choose. I am not saying controlling our self is easy. I am saying it is possible to control our inner world and have peace.
It is possible because we can learn from the Master. Jesus knew how and he taught his disciples how. Matthew 11:20 says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." We can experience God's wonderful healing grace. Richard Foster said, "The needed change within us is God's work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the Kingdom of God: it is a grace that is given." The only real thing we need to do is accept that the Kingdom of God is already there within us and believe that fact with intention. God will do the rest. The problem is not with God, it is with our belief and acceptance of who we are in Him.
The good news is that we can use the gift God gave us of our free will and our will power to help ourselves grow our belief stronger so that at some point we are able to accept who we are in God as true. Then God's grace will be able to do the good work completely from within. But until then we can keep using our free will to work on our inner world, our belief. We can build up our faith muscles the same way we build up our body muscles, through practice.
Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." We don't have to have blind faith in what a preacher or teacher says. We can read Scripture our self and then test and prove it as Romans 12:2 says in our own life. We can experiment with renewing our mind, we can practice belief in smaller things so that when big things happen we know how it works. We can see for ourselves the blessings Scripture says are already ours by experimentation with small things. We can use our free will to renew our mind, control our thinking and speech, and if we do not give up our experimentation, we prove Scripture's claim of the gift of peace.
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