The Missing Link to a Soul’s Peace

As I sit here, having overslept through an afternoon nap, there is a sense within me of physical irritation; something is not quite right; something has interrupted my peace. And what that affects is my hope.

This state of partial homoeostatic confusion, a lack of tranquillity, reminds me a little of the sort of inner panic home to anxiety that I feel when I’m tested for hope. Upon propensity for doubting, where faith is faint and perhaps too much trouble, hope fades.

What we are really missing is peace.

But we cannot have peace without hope.

Hope is what we need and a felt hope at that. This sort of felt hope underpins our conscious awareness, because subconsciously all is well. If we lack peace we can work on our hope. If we lack hope we can work on our vision for life and on our relationship with God, because our hope rests in God.

Hoping in God

In Psalm 42:5, the psalmist tells himself in his torment, “Hope in God...”

Psalms 42 and 43 feature the writer—a Korahite—in a perplexed state. We, also, are home to this inward spiritual dissension. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, we can feel alienated from our hope, and that by a state where our peace has been vanquished.

Hoping in God has its objective in getting us to a place where we actually experience God’s hope enough to believe we are okay, safe, and spiritually blessed. The outcome is peace. It is a feeling outbound of our investments of hoping in God.

Yet, how do we hope in God? How do we retrieve this inner soul-peace?

We believe God. We don’t just believe in God, we believe God. There is a subtle difference. Our thinking changes immediately. And that’s the secret. Our thinking is central to a change in mind, which converts to a change in heart, which converts to a soul’s situational reformation.

Hoping in God, by simply thinking more and more about the blessings, promises, and faithfulness of God, is the secret to experiencing this missing link to a soul’s peace.

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Hope is the secret to peace. When our spirits are tranquil, hope abides. There is much we can do to restore our hope to experience peace. It begins in the mind. Hopeful thoughts permeate the heart, and a heart that feels safe reassures the soul. One concept is vital: Hope in God.

When we think, we must believe what we think, without a doubt.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.