Step-by-step

All who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.

Proverbs 1:33

We live in tumultuous times. An economy once thought to be unassailable seems to be crumbling. The structures of our society have been exposed and revealed to be shaky and uncertain.

Yet God promises us an untroubled peace: “All who listen to me will live in peace.” Where does our fearlessness come from? God’s voice, speaking to our hearts.

We don’t study a God who spoke only long ago. We live in relationship with a God who continues to speak today. He communicates the words of Scripture into our lives in real time. Clear your life of its noisy clutter and listen to him. Marinate your life in his Word. Believe what he promises, and do what he says. Listening means responding to what you hear. He promises peace to all who listen to him.

Some time ago I had a situation in my life that was disruptive and nerve racking. There was no escaping it, no way around it. I had to work my way through it. I could have easily sunk into worry and felt overwhelmed. Only one thing kept fear at bay: God’s voice. Whenever fear inserted itself into my thoughts and demanded my attention, I deliberately turned to God and heard him speak to my heart: Jennifer, I will never leave you or forsake you. Jennifer, you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. Jennifer, Jennifer, I have redeemed you; you are mine. I found that I could focus on each required step, not worrying ahead about the next one, and step-by-step work my way through the trouble.

When I face difficult situations, I can walk through them with worry dogging my every step, or I can do it with settled peace. God’s voice changes the atmosphere of my circumstances.

Thank you for speaking peace into my life. I choose to live in untroubled peace by listening to your voice in my heart.

Come, and however feeble you feel, just wait in His presence. As a feeble, sickly invalid is brought out into the sunshine to let its warmth go through him, come . . . and sit and wait there with one thought: Here I am, in the sunshine of His love.

Andrew Murray(1828–1917), South African pastor and author