Wishing you a peace-full 2016

What you need when you don’t get what you wish for

Happy New Year everyone! The older and, hopefully, wiser I get, the less I end up wishing for everything to go perfectly in the year ahead, and the more I try to pursue peace in the midst of the inevitable highs and lows that both come with each and every year.

This verse from Philippians in the New Testament has been a real source of strength and encouragement lately:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

It’s not about praying to God as if he was some genie going around magically granting wishes left, right, and centre; it’s simply putting my life and circumstances before God in prayer and opening myself up to the kind of peace that only comes from beyond myself.

And if I was to have one prayer for all those around me who I love and care about, it would be for transcendent peace that will sustain your through everything – good and bad – that life throws at you this year. We can never fully control what happens in life. There will always be ups and downs. So the best thing we can possibly have to face life in all its glorious beauty and its heartbreaking despair is to have true, deep, transcendent peace.

May you have a peace-full 2016!