Peace: The Cure For Restlessness

Grace and peace to you.

Last night, in one of my writing classes, we discussed a book wherein the author dealt primarily with the subject of restlessness.  It was said that this author has addressed this subject in some of his other books, and we therefore concluded that perhaps he had unresolved issues stemming from his childhood.  Towards the end of the discussion, the professor asked each student in turn if he had ever experienced restlessness.

When it was my turn, he asked me if I were a sedentary person or a restless person.  I told him that I used to think that I was a restless person because, having spent the better part of my life in military service, I had grown accustomed to being constantly on the move and had gotten quite used to it.  In fact, I was better at traveling than I was at staying in any one place.  Because of this, I had come to think that I was born to travel.  But, as I explained, when I found the Lord Jesus, all of that changed.

I knew in my heart that there would be some in the class who would not appreciate this small bit of my testimony.  It is class policy for each student to distribute a copy of a story he has written to every member of the class, which we in turn are to critique and suggest any improvements.  We then collectively discuss the story at our next meeting.   About a month ago,  a young lady had written a short story about a mission trip she took to a South American country.  At the conclusion of the story, she included a passage from the Bible that she said gave her courage and strength in difficult times.

I was very surprised by the reaction of some of the class members to the inclusion of the Bible passage, as some were offended that she expressed her religious sentiments.  A couple students said that they would have preferred if she had merely hinted at her religious beliefs, rather than “hit them in the face with them.”  What was curious is that the lady never, for one minute, talked about her religion.  She never said she was a Christian.  She never mentioned Jesus.  There was no preaching or moral lesson.  There was a scene that involved someone giving thanks before eating breakfast, but the prayer didn’t end with “In Jesus’ name,” so it was, in essence, a secular prayer.  One could say that the Bible verse was a reference to Christianity, but the version of the Bible she used was one of the liberal modern translations, and in fact, sounded so unlike the version found in the Authorized Version, the King James, that it could have come from any secular publication.  In short, there was nothing overtly religious about the story; and yet, people were offended.

What is even more amazing to me, and which speaks directly to the present antagonism of Americans towards the Christian religion, especially in our schools and on college campuses, is that, without exception, the author of every book that we have examined in this class, about ten total, has included to some extent his worldview or a religious belief: be it evolution, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other.  Yet, no one in the class ever expressed being offended by this material.  As a matter of fact, at least one person said that one of the books caused her to think about her own life.  Of course, this was the reason that book was included as one of our textbooks in the first place.

So, when the professor asked me about restlessness, I determined within myself to address this subject from a spiritual perspective and make my plug for Jesus, because I perceived in my heart that someone in that class needed to hear that.  It seems that even the most avowedly open-minded person can accept just about any worldview except the Christian worldview.  And that’s the one that they need to hear!

You see, what each of us instinctively knows, but doesn’t want to accept, is that a major cause of our restlessness is, in fact, a lack of a relationship with the Lord Jesus.  Scripture says that we were made for worship.  There is a hole in each and every individual which can only be filled by the Holy Spirit, and that can only happen through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Without a relationship with the Lord Jesus, we are restless, because we have no peace.  And we can have no peace, because only Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, can give us peace.

Did you know, dear reader, that until we make our peace with God, we can have no peace? The Bible says, “there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). He says it again at Isaiah 57:21.  Whenever Jesus says something twice, you had better listen.  If you are not at peace, you are at war.  It’s just that simple.  Did you know that until you accept Jesus as your Saviour, you are at war with God?  Listen to what Romans 5:1 says: 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That means that until we have made our peace with God, we are His enemy.  Now, that doesn’t mean God is going to mash us with His thumb at any minute, but it does mean that there are some blessings that He may not bestow on us just yet.  Peace is one of those blessings.

I was in war, and I can tell you that you go to bed at night with one eye open.  I don’t remember having one dream when I was in Iraq.  That was because my body only let me sleep deep enough to run it’s self-maintenance routine, so that I could function the next day.  I rarely, if at all, slept deep enough to dream.  Did you know that many people who do not have peace with God can not get a really good night’s sleep?  I was witnessing to someone a few months ago and she made a startling admission.  She told me that she has never had one dream in her entire life.  I was surprised.  I told her surely she has had at least one dream.  She assured me that she had not.  It’s important for me to mention that this lady also told me that she manifests a lot of psychic phenomena like spirits communicating with her that she believes are deceased family members.  God, in Deuteronomy Chapter 18, expressly forbids communicating with spirits.  That is because there is no such thing as ghosts.  These spirits are demons.  And it is forbidden to talk with them.

With respect to her inability to dream, in order for a person to dream, the person has to enter into the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep.  This is the deepest stage of sleep and is the point where a person dreams.  What I didn’t tell this lady is that the inability to dream is often a complaint of people who have demonic activity in their lives. Show me a witch, and I’ll show you a person that hardly gets any sleep.  People who have been delivered out of occult activity have testified that they rarely got a good night’s sleep and were always in a constant state of fear.  Remember, “There is no peace…unto the wicked.”

Until we repent of our sins we are living in a state of wickedness.  The Bible says, “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest” (Isaiah 57:20).  That means that we are constantly tossing and turning, like a ship in a storm that cannot find its port where it can dock.  We are restless.  This restlessness can take the form of an inability to get a restful night sleep, an inability to dream, or a feeling that we have to be constantly on the move.  I know someone like that.

Some people are constantly in search of a new high, a new place to hang out, new friends, or a new pastime.  Others have to move every two or three years.  These people constantly have to be re-energized by a new experience.  It becomes addicting like a drug. If they don’t get their fix, they get depressed.  There are people who are constantly in search of the travel destination that will help them to put their lives into perspective.  That is why exotic destinations like Tibet are all the rage, and why Eastern philosophy and yoga are in vogue.  That is why the travel industry, even in a depression, is still making a profit.  We are restless.  We have no peace.  We are trying to find ourselves.

I told the class that when I got saved, I found out who I am, why I am here, what my mission in life is, and where I am going when I die.  For the first time in my life I had direction and purpose, and I came to realize that God had made me the way I am for a particular purpose that is perfectly suited to the work that He has called me to do.  I no longer had to “fit in.”  I no longer had to find out what my life’s calling was.  I only had to find out how the Lord wanted me to fulfill it.  I didn’t feel different for the reasons I used to feel different.  I was now different because I was a part of God’s family, and the world has no use for God.  The Bible says that we are “sojourners and pilgrims” in this world.  I’m just passing through.

I stopped searching.  I stopped looking.  I stopped seeking.  I had found myself.  I was home.  I was in Germany at the time, and the year was September 2005.  Two and a half years later I came home.  The travel bug that I used to have has died and gone to travel bug heaven.  I didn’t even bother to give him a funeral.  I may travel in the future, but for entirely different reasons.  It’s interesting to note that a young lady in my class, who travels quite often, told me that she never thought she traveled because she was looking for herself.  She sort of laughed it off, but you could tell that she was thinking about this.  A young man in the class, who had written a story about a trip he had taken specifically for the purpose of “finding himself” (he admitted to doing this every two or three years), was looking at me rather intently, but he said nothing.

Think about it.  There is a hole in each and every one of us that can only be filled with Jesus Christ.  Stop running.  Slow down.  Stop.  Stop looking for something to fill that void in your life that will be empty again tomorrow.  Give Jesus a try.  He’ll fill you up.  He’ll satisfy you.  He’ll tell you who you are.  He’ll tell you why you are here.  He’ll tell you what your mission in life is.  And he will never, never leave you nor forsake you.

If you are tired of moving and would like to start a wonderful relationship with the Lord Jesus, click here.

Then, be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

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