Finding hope from fear, depression, anxiety and panic attacks.
by Russ Pond
“To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress. Then it becomes a master. Then it becomes a tyrant. And the last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public.”
by Russ Pond
“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
“Recovery is on the other side of panic, not this side.”
by Russ Pond
“He…comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does He do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.”
by Russ Pond
Living in Lasting Peace from InTouch Ministires
“His name shall be called . . . The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
The original Greek word for peace means “to bind together,” offering us a fascinating insight into the only sure source of peace.
Romans 5:1 states that when we are justified by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. This means we have been bound together with a totally holy God after having been separated from Him because of sin.
Therefore, the key element in true, lasting peace is the presence of God in our lives. Paul states in Ephesians 2:14 that Christ is our peace, which means that His presence is the presence of peace within us. Jesus says in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace.”
What is this peace? It is an inner sense of contentment and quietness regardless of life’s circumstances. It is steadfast confidence in our ever-faithful, immutable heavenly Father. It is the presence of joy in the midst of unhappiness.
True peace is not merely painting our pain with a pretty color. A person who has genuine godly peace will endure an avalanche of hardship and difficulty and still abide within a peace that surpasses all human understanding. Why? Because it is not based on our circumstances, events, or what others may do to us. It is based simply on the fact that the Spirit of a holy and omnipotent God lives within us, and there is absolutely no shadow of turning in Him.
by Russ Pond
For many years Barbara Erichson taught pre-K autistic children. Frequently during class, the children scratched her, pinched her, even bit her and carried on in all sorts of ways that were injurious to her and detrimental to her work. She was not offended.
She knew the children were autistic, profoundly handicapped, caught up in their own little worlds with all their needs for structure, the longing to communicate and the inability to do so. With this disability came frustration, anxiety, fear, anger and so on.
Barbara envisions God as a pre-K teacher and all of us humans as autistic, profoundly handicapped. And so we live in our own little world shaped by our DNA and all the programming enjoined by our particular culture. Sensing our own uniqueness, we have tremendous difficulty communicating with those around us. Out of sheer frustration, anxiety, fear and anger we end up acting in inappropriate ways which, we were taught, offend God. Barbara suggests we do not offend God; we simply act inappropriately, going against the right order of things, hurting ourselves and others.
Copyright 2022, Season of Peace