This week during prayer, while wrestling in my mind and prayers, God said, “You have to seek a deeper peace.”
I specialize in wrangling with thoughts, ideas, fears, difficulties, and people that bother me. I do this in my mind, a treadmill gradually increasing in speed that I can’t stop. This mental treadmill follows me around. I wake up and it’s there, or someone says something discouraging to me and the treadmill turns on.
Talking to God about my treadmill in prayers this week, He replied, “Seek a deeper peace.”
Corrie Ten Boom said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”
A compilation of all things deep is found in Psalm 42:5-8, in the ESV:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him.
Deep calls to deep.
By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love,
And at night his song is with me.
My seeking of God has revealed one troublesome fact: He allows my peace to be shaken, even destroyed, for periods of time. Something bothers me, I lack understanding, a wound that I can’t forgive, or uneasiness of something afoot in the spirit world.
I can’t let it rest. So onto the treadmill, I go. Sometimes when getting in shape spiritually, when fighting the roaring lion attacks, and when trying to overcome discouragement, I can get stuck on the treadmill.
Then I experience what the Psalmist says, “I shall again praise Him” (v. 5).
Spinning and spinning, then….
An idea, a sort of “Eureka!” moment in which I have the solution. A breakthrough of forgiveness or a knowing of victory in spiritual warfare. Peace falls. God flips the switch and the treadmill stops.
All is quiet again. I have received “the help of His presence” (v. 5, NASB95).
The victory of the Lord forces a deepening in our souls. The crustiness, the staleness, the compromise, and the acceptance must be crushed. It’s painful, often frightening, wrestling alone at night, and then new mercy isn’t found in the morning.
The Psalmist cries out, “God, this morning, why have you forgotten me?” (v. 9).
He has not. He is working something deeper.
God gives the command, “Get on and turn the switch to fast.” Life spins, dreams crumble, sickness leads to death, betrayal to divorce, doctrinal confusion to church splits, and wisdom not found.
Then you utter…
The prayer of your life to God (v. 8, OGV, KJV).
You are now where God wants you. Don’t stop, don’t quit, and keep pressing.
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me (v. 7).
I’m sorry for the mixed metaphors – God is using waterfalls and storm-tossed seas to describe your frustration while I’m using a treadmill. Whether it is a storm or an anxiety-induced treadmill, remember…
Why are you cast down, O my soul, why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation, and my God (v. 11).