Meeting Life with Peace, Loving Kindness, and Compassion

In a quiet moment recently, I meditated on these words, “Being at peace is my greatest strength. I meet any situation with loving kindness. I am compassion.” Imagine the impact this statement could truly have on a person if we made a conscious effort to practice it every day. But where can we find a peace that is powerful enough to quiet our hearts when life throws significant challenges our way?

Let us start at the source - God.

Peace, loving kindness, and compassion are all attributes of God. He is everlasting and unchanging.

PEACE: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

LOVING KINDNESS: But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior… (Titus: 3:4-6)

COMPASSION: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

If we could fill our hearts with God’s attributes every day, we would feel a love and peace beyond understanding. Have you ever felt that before? I have experienced it before, and it really is amazing! It is a feeling like no other. A situation arises that you know you “should be” worrying about, but you do not. Why? Because you feel this amazing love and peace that just calms you.

I used to be a worry wart. And that worry, took away my peace. Now, do not get me wrong, I do still worry, but I am much better than I used to be. I do not know about you, but I have wasted so much time with fear, worry and what ifs. That is a lot of negative energy and is exhausting! Not to mention, you are giving into the devil.

The Bible says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

“If you get down and quarrel everyday, you're saying prayers to the devil, I say.”- Bob Marley

So, what are we supposed to do? How are we to navigate life when we feel panic? We seek God. When life presents challenges, we can either (1) choose to be strong in the Lord and find peace in Him even in the midst of our challenges, or (2) we can allow fear and worry to take over, robbing us of our peace.

If we choose fear and worry, it will fester and develop into defensiveness, frustration, anger, and destruction of our lives.

We lose sight of God.

Or we can choose to acknowledge the fear and worry, by putting our energies (strength) into solving challenges and being at peace. Instead of looking inward, we need to look upward and place our hope in God by receiving strength through our relationship with Christ.

The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace. (Psalm 29:11) Why does God give us this? So that we can comfort those who are experiencing trouble, from the comfort we receive from God. Then we can tell others of God’s peace, loving kindness and compassion. We must learn to exemplify God’s attributes in our own lives so others can see that when challenging times hit, we can face these situations with strength. And we can thank the Lord for the ability to reach out to Him and know that He will take care of us.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all! (2 Thessalonians 3:16)