Important Peace Verses to have the best New Year

Peace is a great word for a coming new year. I’ll face many changes, trials, & joys. Resting in these peace verses will help me stay in God’s perfect peace, putting on the armor of God each day, no matter what it brings.

After a couple of difficult years, I’ve learned to stay in God’s word and keep important verses written on my heart so I am prepared for the difficulties life throws at me.

The word that I want to carry into the New Year is Peace.

A few years ago, I wrote about the challenges of the prior year, hoping that 2017 would be less challenging, but that wasn’t God’s plan for my family. I spent most of the year facing a debilitating recovery (as I have in 2019 as well) , but God used my circumstances for His glory.

Truly difficult years have clarified that life is a roller coaster. While crisis follows crisis, surprising joys sprinkled our days as well. None of either were things I could control or plan.

I can only control how I react.

So I want to have the kind of peace that never changes no matter what I’m facing.

Psalm 23:4 ESV Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

A few falls ago, we had an unfortunate circumstance that affected my husband greatly. Hunting is his absolute favorite pastime, and he lost the privileges to hunt at our local military base due to a GPS miscalculation. He was devastated.

My soldier was finishing up his active duty service at the time. What he saw during his military service changed him. Hunting has been what gave him a center, an identity, and he was absolutely heartbroken.

My reaction to his reaction was fear and panic. How would he cope in the long haul? How would this affect our family? our marriage? our finances? Because he provided all our meat through hunting.

But I realized my panic meant I wasn’t trusting God or His plan for our lives.

I had to realize God’s plan doesn’t mean everything works out my way. God’s plan doesn’t mean I never face difficulties. It doesn’t mean that the lives of those around me go smoothly.

And God’s plan is something I can trust because He has demonstrated his faithfulness. Even in the midst of the physical and emotional pain of dealing with my slow (and ongoing) recovery, God showed me that He was using it to bring my husband and I to a closer stage of emotional intimacy.

Now in 2019, I can look back and see that God provided the perfect job for my husband following the loss of his hunting privileges. He works outdoors and gets to be in the woods all the time. His unique talents and wildlife knowledge that made hunting enjoyable for him have made him excel in this new career.

In the midst of this heartbreaking crisis, God was already working to provide a solution for my husband, before he was even retired from the military. And through this job, he’s had opportunities that we never could have imagined. God has blessed us through this more than hunting alone ever would have.

John 10:10 ESV The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

While God doesn’t promise that we will always have an earthly life that is financially secure and abundant, in that circumstance, God’s plan for my husband was to take a devastating loss and show him love through an even better result.

I see God’s hand in this every step of the way.

But it’s all easier SAID than DONE in the moment.

In my human weakness, I forget. I freak out. Sometimes, I panic.

I need God’s Biblical truths to remind me that God is in control, especially in those moments I can’t yet see how God’s plan is working for good. These are some of the peace verses I cling to when faced with the chaos of a fallen world.

I can't control the circumstances of my life. I can only control how I react. Reacting in panic means I'm not really trusting God. These #peaceverses help me focus on His truths. Click To Tweet

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

While, Jeremiah 29:11 is overused by pretty much everyone, that verse IN CONTEXT is a good reminder that even disaster can be a part of God’s plan when the plan encompasses eternity. The enslavement of the Israelite people was part of God’s plan to ultimately redeem all of us.

We may see a tragedy in our own lives on a monumental scale, but in God’s scale He sees how we cope with the tragedy, how we are faithful in the midst of the chaos, and how that ripple can affect and change the lives of others.

John 11:4 ESV But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

God may be ultimately glorified through difficulties that hurt and grow us. I continually wish it weren’t the case, but I haven’t often grown through easy times as much as I do the ones that test and stretch me.

But God doesn’t promise to give us what we want. He promises what we need, and what we need for His glory and purpose.