English Standard Version
Much has been said of ducks, which always look so serene floating on the water, even when they're paddling like crazy below the water. Even when the world around is chaotic, they appear peaceful, but they're working beneath the surface.
Sometimes, I think being a Christian is like that. Can we all admit that the world is a crazy place at times? It doesn't often seem serene around us. People persecute us, but a lot of the time, we're just caught up in stuff. We struggle with mental and emotional health. We experience stress in relationships. We have conflict with parents and children and coworkers. We read the news. The world is full of chaos.
But to be a Christian means that our ultimate hope isn't in the things of this world, but in a God who redeems this entire world. This allows us to move through this world in peace. When we fully realize that God loves us (no matter what!) and intends to redeem this world and what is in it, then we should be so amazed that we go to God in prayer. That's how a soul turns to God 7 times a day in prayer -- not out of obligation, but out of love. We're constantly working to praise God, and the more we praise God, the more our trust isn't in this world, so the more peaceful we seem to the world around us, and the better influence we can be to the people and events around us, because we're not caught up in the drama and conflict, so we don't intensify it! It's a cycle that goes around and around, and through it all, we can bring peace into the world, relationship by relationship, because we have nothing to fear and nothing to hold onto, because God is holding onto us.
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