Tag Archives: the peace of God

FOUNDATION STONES – 6

Christian Life, ,

ENJOY GOD’S PEACE

Psalms 119:165 NIV
[165] “Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”

Peace is another absolute necessity for our foundation, without which life would be intolerable in an uncertain world. How can anyone exist, let alone thrive when everything we hope in is crumbling around us? There is nothing that can provide security for us…money and wealth can be here today and gone tomorrow; people closest to us can be unfaithful and betray us; our government is fickle and failing, working only to secure itself and its power over the people. What do we have left to cling to that will be a safe haven?

Even God’s Word strikes a sombre note.

Isaiah 48:22 NIV
[22] “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Peace! What is peace?

I found an unusual definition of peace on Pinterest.

“Peace is a furious serenity that refuses to submit to chaos.”

Wow! That says a lot!

The only way to refuse to submit to chaos is to choose to entrust oneself to someone or something that can never fail to keep one safe and secure in the midst of chaos.

Who or what is that “someone” or “something” that can provide indestructible peace?

Let’s unpick this question bit by bit by finding out what the Bible says about peace.

First, who is the source of peace?

Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV
[20] “Now may THE GOD OF PEACE, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, [21] equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

That’s clear, isn’t it? God is the source of peace because peace is who He is!

To confirm…

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NIV
[23] “May God himself, THE GOD OF PEACE, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [24] The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

There is only one source of peace, God Himself. He is the one who is not only peace but can also give His peace to those who believe in Him.

Jesus promised…

John 14:27 NIV
[27]”Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Real peace, then, comes from God through Jesus, who is the only source of true peace.

Second, why and how can we experience God’s peace?

Why? The Bible tells us that we have peace with God because He has settled the sin problem…

Romans 5:1 NIV
[1]”Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have PEACE WITH GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ…”

How? We have the peace of God when we give Him all our anxieties…

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
[6] “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [7] And the PEACE OF GOD, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Once we have experienced this amazing peace that nothing in the world can give us or take from us, what can we do to maintain this peace? Our arch enemy, the devil, will do everything in His power to disturb our peace by firing his lies at us. Fear, accusation, mistrust are all part of his arsenal.

Our defence is simple.

Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV
[3] “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. [4] Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”

God Himself will maintain His peace in us when we trust in Him, when we refuse to submit to chaos because we are convinced that He is in charge.

Then our verse,

Psalms 119:165 NLT
[165]”Those who LOVE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS have great peace and do not stumble.”

Through the reassurance of God’s Word that puts all our topsy-turvey circumstances into perspective, we keep His peace in us intact. Our minds must be fortified by what the Lord Himself says about us and our circumstances, and we must trust Him and what He says rather than what seems to be.

Then, come what may, we can never be shaken from our firm foundation, the solid rock of peace, the guardrail against falling into the chaos that is happening around us.

GLIMPSES OF PAUL – 5

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PAUL AT PEACE

Now follows a series of “we know” or “I have learned”, not in order of priority but meaningfully contributing to the grandeur of Paul’s legacy as believer and teacher.

The most important and essential ingredient in this life of submission and obedience is trust. Every adversity we encounter on our journey is designed to test the strength of our confidence in the one who has promised and given us everything we need.

When tough times come, do I trust Him, absolutely…unconditionally? With no solution in sight, will He do as He has promised?

How many times Paul had his back to the wall! How did he find security and peace of mind in these tests?

In this life of faith, what we believe produces what we feel. Feelings are never random. Feelings always confirm our behaviour and thinking. We can trust our emotions in this that they tell us what’s going on inside.

One of Jesus’s greatest gifts is His peace. Oh, how the world longs for peace! But, God said, “There is no peace for the wicked.” Peace is the legacy Jesus left for those who believe in Him.

John 14:27 NLT
[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.”

Well, that’s great, but what do we do when we are troubled or afraid?

Paul found his answer so infallible that he could pass it on with full confidence. When we read what he wrote, it’s clear that this prescription must have come from his own experience.

What disturbs our peace?

Something happens in our thinking when we face seemingly insoluble situations. Doubts replace trust; uncertainty replaces confidence, and our feelings confirm the change. We lose our peace. We feel unhappy, disturbed, insecure.

Paul says, “Come back to the place where your peace left. Give all the thoughts and beliefs that have robbed you of peace to God.” How can I do that? Simple!

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
[6] “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, WITH THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. [7] And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT
[6]” Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, AND THANK HIM for all he has done. [7] 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.”

Do you get the key?

It is impossible to be doubtful and thankful at the same time. Thanksgiving is the language of faith. When we choose to dump our issues on God and deliberately give Him thanks for who He is, faithful, reliable, and always good…God’s peace takes charge, acting as a military garrison around our innermost beings.

Connecting God’s peace with who we are, sons of God, we now have two great truths to secure our faith and two courses of action to confirm our relationship with God. We confirm we are His sons and daughters by our submission and obedience to His supreme authority. We confirm our confidence in Him by our grateful hearts, that keeps His peace in place.

Sons of God, His peace standing guard…what can be better than that!

PRAY UNTIL PEACE COMES

Christian Life, ,

PRAY UNTIL PEACE COMES

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6, 7.

The peace of God is the referee in our hearts (Colossians 3:15), the faithful and accurate measure of the open channel between us and the Father. When our peace has been disturbed, we know that we are out of sync with Him. The question is, “How do we get back to having His peace rule in our hearts?”

Anxiety is a peace-destroyer and can show up in many guises; fear, insecurity, anger, and jealousy are all shades of anxiety at the heart of which is mistrust of God. Whatever the emotion, it is rooted in the unbelief which blocks the channel and disturbs our peace.

Paul’s prescription for restoring our peace begins with a “do not”. Anxiety is not something we can switch on and off like a light switch. Anxiety will only go when it is identified, its source uncovered, and it is replaced with peace since two opposite emotions cannot exist side-by-side in our hearts.

The first step to restoring peace is to acknowledge the anxiety that disturbed it in the first place. Until we allow ourselves to feel and acknowledge that anxiety, we will not be ready to admit our unbelief. Praying about an issue without uncovering the root of our anxiety will not be a solution nor will it receive an answer since the answer will be blocked by unbelief.

The second step is to recognise that our problem is not the issue but the fear that the issue has raised, for example, you have a financial deadline to meet and no money to meet it. You think that the lack of money is your problem. If you had the money to pay your debt, you would have no anxiety. However, the next time a similar situation happens, the anxiety will return which means that the anxiety has not been dealt with. It is still hanging around, waiting to surface again the next time a financial need arises.

The third step is to identify and admit that it is your unwillingness to trust God that triggered your anxiety. God’s peace is only in your heart when you trust in Him and it is His peace that lifts you above your circumstances so that, no matter what happens, His peace stands guard over your heart and shuts out the unwelcome intrusion of fear, anxiety, insecurity etc.

Paul concludes by telling us how to maintain that peace along the bumpy road of life’s adversities. Anxiety begins in the mind when we are uncertain of God’s love for us. To counteract that, we need to fill our minds with the truths that assure us of His love. Think on the good things with gratitude. Then He will stand guard over our hearts and champion us in every circumstance.

WHAT HINDERS YOUR PRAYERS?

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WHAT HINDERS YOUR PRAYERS?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6, 7 NIV).

There are many things that hinder prayer; doubt, unbelief, sin, wrong motives etc, but there is one hindrance that often goes unnoticed, hinted at in the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to pray, as quoted in the verses above. He refers to anxiety, an emotion that is often very much part of our lives. There are many reasons why we become anxious but, according to the Apostle John: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…” (1 John 4:18, NIV). Fear and anxiety are symptoms of our mistrust of God’s love for us. Mistrust is unbelief and unbelief is sin. In fact, any emotion that is not perfect peace will hinder our prayers because God always responds to faith.

Paul explains the process by which we can enter the peace of God that doesn’t make sense. Step one: Get rid of the anxiety. How? Since anxiety and the mistrust that underlies it, are sin, they need to be treated as sin by being brought into the light through honest confession and repentance. Our needs and concerns are not our problem. Our unbelief in the faithfulness of our heavenly Father is the problem that causes the anxiety, fear or whatever emotion underlies the mistrust in our hearts against God.

The next step in this process is worship. Paul said, “…By prayer and petition.” According to Strong’s Analytical Concordance, the Greek word translated “prayer” is the word for worship. Worship turns us away from ourselves to acknowledge and honour who God is, to focus on Him, and to open our hearts to Him in adoration and praise. Worship helps us to recognise that God is our Father, faithful, loving, and trustworthy, that He knows our needs before we ask Him and that, in every situation, He is working for our good and His glory. Worship and thanksgiving are the way we express our trust in God’s love and faithfulness.

The final step is petition, placing our requests in God’s hands. Petition should never be our first recourse in prayer, but rather the expression of our confidence in God’s love, entrusting to Him the situations for which we have no answer once we have dealt with our fears and anxieties.

Prayer is the expression of a loving and trusting relationship with our heavenly Father, who knows us intimately, who knows our needs and whose love for us always guarantees a favourable outcome not\ matter what our situation may be. God desires that our prayers should flow out of a heart at peace with Him. He allows circumstances into our lives that bring to the surface those attitudes and emotions which expose our mistrust of Him so that we can experience His peace.

God’s peace is the referee that blows the whistle when our beliefs are in error, or holds us steady as we keep trusting God in every situation.

8 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF PEACE

Christian Life, ,

8 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF PEACE

Our life in the kingdom of God is very secure. However, we have an enemy who will use every weapon at his disposal to knock us off balance and derail us as we walk with Jesus in the Word.

Jesus left us a legacy on the eve of His death that protects us against the devil’s wiles. Woven into His teaching about the Holy Spirit in John 14-16, He promised His disciples the three most powerful defensive weapons against the devil’s deception. Mankind lost these weapons when Adam sinned and was left with guilt, shame and fear. Jesus restored them to us when the Holy Spirit came to live in us as His temple.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”

HIS LOVE, HIS JOY and HIS PEACE

Today we focus on God’s PEACE because

  1. His peace is the gauge that monitors our progress in believing and living by the truth provided for us in the Word.
  1. God’s peace is the referee in this game of life. It tells us when we are on the path and leaves us when we have wandered off in our beliefs and behaviour and need to return (repent).
  1. God’s peace us our weapon against Satan’s attempts to drive a wedge between us and God.

How can we know if we are believing and walking in the truth rather than falling for deception?

“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” Colossians 3:15 NLT

God gives us His peace like shoes to protect our feet as we stand against all the schemes of the devil. In order to be secure in our position in Christ, we need to be standing on both feet to enjoy the full benefits of this power of peace.

“For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.” Ephesians 6:15 NLT

  1. PEACE WITH GOD

Everyone born into the world is God’s enemy until he/she is reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus.

“But there is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord .” Isaiah 48:22 NLT

However, God intervened while we were still enemies. He provided forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son. By faith, we receive His forgiveness and He reconciles us to Himself in response.

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ… For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them…” 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 NL 

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” Romans 5:10 NLT

Now we have a standing in God that is permanent…We are not guilty… We have been declared RIGHTEOUS. No matter what we do, we are righteous in God’s sight. We have been delivered from Satan’s power to influence us and are now under the influence of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,” Colossians 1:13 NLT

The outcome is PEACE WITH GOD.

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” Romans 5:1 NLT

This is the one shoe that protects our minds against the guilt, shame and fear that Satan uses to alienate us from the Father. Whenever the devil tries to bring us into condemnation, God’s peace reassures us that we are righteous, no matter what.

When we have sinned, we feel guilty because it is a natural inclination to revert to feelings of guilt, shame and fear, and the devil reinforces our guilt feelings by accusing us.

It is the Holy Spirit’s task to convince us that we are righteous when we have sinned. He does not convict us by making us feel guilty. He calls us back because we are righteous.

PEACE with God, then, deals effectively with the sin issue. Jesus forgave all our sin, past, present and future. God has declared us permanently righteous.

  1. THE PEACE OF GOD

Although we have peace with God, we are still vulnerable if we only stand on one foot. We need to have both feet fitted with the shoes of peace and firmly planted on the ground of truth.

The PEACE OF GOD is the other shoe that protects the other foot.

How can we experience this “peace of God”?

“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

Worry or anxiety diverts our attention from God’s promises to our circumstances. Worry, anxiety and fear are three of Satan’s most effective distractors to get us away from our confidence in God. Fear is the opposite of faith.

Two definitions will help us understand the difference.

Faith is “calling those things that are not as though they were.”

Fear is “calling those things that have not happened as though they had.”

Paul adds thanksgiving to our prayers as the way to focus on God and move our attention from our bad experiences and feelings to God.

I focus on three non-negotiable truths about God.

– God is here

– God is good

– God is in charge

Prayer in and of itself will not deal with our anxieties. We tend to tell God what we think He wants to hear. We need to be honest about the way we feel. I call it “spilling our guts” to God. Our bad feelings are the confirmation of the lies we believe. When we “spill our guts” to God, we are actually confessing that our beliefs are contrary to the Word.

When we “come clean” with God, a miracle happens. He sweeps our hearts clean of all that stuff and replaces it with His peace so powerful that it guards our hearts and minds against the anxieties and fears that plagued us.

Once we experience the security of standing firmly on both feet with the shoes of God’s peace in place, there is an infallible way to maintain that peace.

“eceived from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of pAnd now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and reace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9 NLT

Once again, we come back to the importance of renewing our minds. This is war!

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV

Paul tells us how to wage war with the lies in the mind that control our lives and the lives of others. Our weapon is “the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”. We use truth to destroy the strongholds of lies that open us to worry, anxiety and fear.

The outcome of victory over Satan’s devices is amazing.

“Then the God of peace will be with you.” This means much more than God’s passive presence. This means that God has your back. He is 100‰ for you and will fight for you, no matter what!

When we do our bit… put on the shoes of peace and stand firmly on both feet, God will do His bit.

He will place a garrison of peace around your heart and mind and fight for you in every struggle against the wiles of the devil.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All Scripture quotations in this series

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.