Peace Beyond Our Understanding

Dear Friends,

The theme for our Sunday morning services at church this month is “Peace” and I’ve been thinking a lot about it this week.  Jesus said in John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”  (NLT)

The problem is we do worry, become anxious and concerned and this can rob us of our peace.  I think I was born a worrier, as a child I worried about all manner of things, small and big, I even worried about worrying so much!  Worrying is not productive and it’s not helpful, it can make us physically ill.  I’ve suffered with digestive problems and headaches as a result of worrying.  We can worry about the future and what might happen, but often what we worried would happen does not occur or is nowhere near as bad as we had imagined.  These are all reasons why Jesus commanded us not to worry.  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life...”  Matthew 6:25 (NIV)

However, the reality is that there are times when we do worry, so what can we do to stop worrying and experiencing the amazing peace that God makes available to us?

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”  Isaiah 26:3 (NLT).  The Amplified Version puts it this way: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”

Therefore, we have God’s promise that he will supply us with perfect and constant peace when we fix our thoughts on him, when we commit ourselves to God, lean on him and trust him.

It’s been said (by whom I can’t remember) that if we know how to worry then we can learn how to meditate (to fix our mind and thoughts on God).  When you think about it, when we worry we chew the problem, the concern, the difficulty over and over in our mind.  It’s a bit like my kids and their love of chewing gum – when they’ve got a piece in their mouths (horrible stuff!) you can see them chewing it over and over, working it constantly.

Meditating on God is a similar process, but instead of focusing on what is worrying us, we bring our mind and thoughts under God’s control, we think about him, his character, his goodness, his love, his power, his strength etc and we think about the truths of his Word, the Bible.  We chew over these things.  So every time we feel ourselves beginning to worry again, we remind ourselves of God and his Word, we turn and fix our thoughts on him.  We commit ourselves to God, we surrender to him and his will for us, make him the centre of our life and then we will experience his perfect and constant peace.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

This means we are not to worry about anything at all – our employment, our finances, our children, our marriage, our parents, our health and the impending diagnosis, etc.  But that doesn’t mean that these things aren’t important, what it does mean is that instead of worrying which is of no benefit to anyone, we are to do something positive, practical and helpful, we are to take everything, all those things that cause us worry and concern, to God in prayer.  If we do this, and there’s nothing to say we can’t do this more than once, then God promises that we will experience his peace, a peace that is beyond our understanding.  With Christ at the centre of our life then his peace will be a guard for our hearts and minds.

As we experience God’s peace in our hearts and minds we will find that it influences the way we live and those close to us will see a difference.  As they notice this difference we can share with them about our relationship with God, the source of our peace and how they can know this same peace for themselves in the midst of their troubles.

To Think About:

What is it that is causing you considerable worry right now?

Would you consider handing this over to God and ask for his peace to guard your heart and mind.

I’ve mentioned just some of the verses about God’s gift of peace to us.  Why not spend some time meditating on one of these.  There’s so much more to learn from them than I have had space to share today.  Or you can go to the Bible Gateway website and search for verses on “peace” and meditate on one of those instead.

 

Vicki