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You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound (Psalm 4:7, ESV).
God gives peace; to feel better, ask Him.
An “unhappiness pandemic” continues to grow in our culture as exhibited in road rage, hate posts, and personal depression. Most of us find that becoming a gym rat, a positive-thinking automaton, or sniffing the latest healing oils ultimately does little or nothing.
Let’s take an easier approach — ask God. The Bible mentions peace (inferring it’s attainable) about 500 times. Consider these verses…
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27).
May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace! (Psalm 29:11)
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all (2 Thessalonians 3:16).
It’s clear that Scripture teaches peace rather than fear, anxiety, doubt, or discouragement. Every year, the threshold of unhappiness sinks lower in our culture. Fifty years ago, the mean age of depression was 29.5 years old and now it’s 14.5 years.
Let’s continually ask for peace. This request isn’t a trite mantra.
John Milton wrote several centuries ago in his book Paradise Lost that, “The Mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven.” In a more recent book, The Happiness Advantage, the author Shawn Achor (a Harvard researcher) wrote, “The point is, as we will see throughout this book, what we spend our time and mental energy focusing on can indeed become our reality.”
And both Milton and Achor, with their focus on the mind as the source of unhappiness, were just repeating what Jesus taught, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:37).
Now, back to asking for peace. Every time a thought of defeat, despair, or depression comes wandering into your mind, please shout, “God, give me peace!” Sometimes you should just mentally shout, as when sitting on a plane with “flight anxiety” (please don’t yell verbally) or when your boss makes an unreasonable and even stupid request (again, don’t shout at her/him), but speak in your mind, “God, give me strength to not strangle her/him.”
Repetitive thinking, asking, and praying are being proven today in academic studies to re-groove the neural pathways in our minds to effectively change the way that we perceive things and how we feel. I love this passage, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
Simply ask, “God, give me peace!” Pray it 100 times a day.