Three Minutes

"Bathe me with your peace..." that was my prayer this morning as I pulled out of the garage feeling the jitters in my stomach and the cold sweats on the palms of my hands...I turned up the radio, hoping to hear a song that would make me feel better, but all I got was static, so I switched the dial and found a familiar voice, Dr. Stanley was on. His soothing tone began immediately to have a settling effect in my tense muscles and then, for the 3 minute ride to work I soaked in the calming waters of 

his words. 

Those words were directed straight at me...

I can't remember what his exact sentences were, but I do remember the gist:  with every trial I face, God is shaping me into the image of Christ. If I accept my storms and fires as the venue God uses to mold me and shape me into the person He designed me to be...the peace that surpasses all understanding will finally flow like the river that it is intended to be. It is not about my comfort, it is about my character...He is working all things together for my own good because He loves me...He loves me with a love that extends far beyond the limits of what I can understand and in a way outside the confines of my mind. 

He is transforming me...that is why I must be thankful in the midst of trial...because He is taking the time to refine me. If He didn't love me, He wouldn't care to mature me and take me further still in my walk with Him...if He didn't love me, He would leave me right where I'm at...if I weren't His child He would not take the time to point me to the right direction and discipline me when needed...if I were the neighbor's daughter, He would let me have it my way because it would be none of His business to show me otherwise.

But I am not the neighbor's child. I am the child of the King! And as such, He is modeling me into the image of the One who wears the many crowns.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Ephesians 3: 14-19

Three minutes...an instant...God's answers are given before we can even formulate the questions...we just need to tune in to the right frequency to hear His voice and let His peace flow.