God's Peace in Our Time

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany BCP 215)

Sometimes we human beings are none too subtle. Take this prayer for this coming Sunday for example. We pray for God, who we admit is in control of all things, to hear our prayers and grant us peace. Yet, we don't just ask for God's peace when we are dead or when God feels is best for us, we ask for God to grant us peace in our time. We recognize the reality that God's time and our human time don't always line up, and we really need peace in our time, not just God's time. 

It is not a subtlety to say that we need peace in our time though. We desperately need God's peace in many ways. As many of us are facing the long effects of uncertainty and stress fatigue, we need some space and time of God's peace. We really want to be able to relax in the knowledge of love and safety of assurance. The only way we can in this world is by putting our whole lives in God's hands.

When we put our whole lives in God's hands, we are able to hit the pause button on the busyness of our lives, or the busyness of our cares, and take a moment to rest in God's peace in our own time. We can access God's grace, love, and peace at any moment we want, that's how eternity works, if only we can let go of our own time and busyness. When we put our lives in God's hands, God's peace always comes in our time, because our time becomes God's time.