Perhaps we have sometimes given the impression that life in Christ is one of agitation, of dissatisfaction, turmoil, or depression because of the feelings within us. Unpleasant feelings seem to dominate us as we forget our Savior and worry our way through the days.

Sometimes we are upset, to be sure. Grief and disappointment come to all. Losses of those near and dear wound our souls with longing for the better things Jesus says will be ours one day. We miss those who took our hand and walked with us. Jesus himself was a "Man of Sorrows and aquatinted with grief" as he was "wounded for our transgressions" and the "iniquity of us all" was laid upon him. "With his stripes we are healed".

There may even be longer periods when we cannot understand what is happening to us as God presses us on the finishing wheel to smooth the flaws in our characters. Like children, we need the discipline of our Heavenly Father if we are to bear his image of pure love for others. Trials challenge our selfishness and call us to a deeper dependance on him.

But that is not the usual, the continual experience of those who abide in Jesus. We may have peace even in the midst of storms. Nor is the Christian experience like what we once had in the world, one dominated by anger, anxiety, shame, bitterness, greed, or lust.

The Christian life is not "a pilgrimage of sighs". Through faith and submission to his "steadfast love" we have peace, hope, and joy as we follow the Way.

Ellen White says it best for me in her little book, Steps to Christ:

"A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love—this is the subject for the soul’s contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him."

~ Steps to Christ, p. 70