peace
I know how to have peace. You follow God's Word. Sounds somewhat elementary...but the Holy Spirit cleared away the fog for me the other day. I have Philippians 4:4-7 memorized, but that doesn't mean I understand it.
The other day I was getting ready for work and I was not at peace, so I started quoting those verses to myself over and over again...
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"...in order to obtain perfect peace you must be rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing because of the issue that is causing you to be anxious? No, rejoicing IN it. Rejoice during it. Rejoice at all times. why? well...what's going to cause us to rejoice? when we know who God is and what He has done. I'm a wretched and filthy sinner, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me], even when [I was] dead in [my] transgressions, made [me] alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5)! God created the heavens and the earth and "[His] eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in [His] book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139:16) When I understand these truths, how can I not rejoice in who God is and what He has done? And, when I understand truths like these I realize who I am in Christ and that begins to bring me peace...but there are still more pieces...
"Let your gentle spirit be made known to all..." We need to have a gentle spirit, as opposed to an irritable or easily angered spirit. How can we have peace when we are irritable? Relax, God is in control, not you.
"The Lord is near"! What a comforting truth! Our God is not far off! He is very near. He hears us when we call! (Jer. 23:23-24)
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication..." A while ago I was studying this passage and I didn't know what 'supplication' was, so I looked it up. Basically it conveys the idea that we need to come to the Lord as a dry, parched ground desires the rain. We need to come to Him destitute. ...if we come to Him with the attitude of "God, I need some help here. Can you give me a hand? I've kinda got this figured out I just need a little help." Then we aren't coming to Him with the right attitude and we aren't going to obtain that peace. Because the truth is that we are worthless on our own and until we give it ALL to Him, we won't be able to obtain peace.
"let your requests be made known to God" ACT! we need to act! we can't just sit around and hope we will obtain peace. we need to do something about it. bring it to God. ...how can we have peace if we don't bring our needs to God and lay them at His feet? if we just keep our struggles to ourselves...we are never going to be able to solve them on our own.
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds..." this is what we desire. The peace of God. But don't forget the last part.
"...in Christ Jesus." don't miss this part, don't just let your eyes pass over those words. without the truth these three words communicate, none of the rest of this passage would be worth anything. without Christ Jesus and what He did, we would have no basis for rejoicing (see 1 Cor. 15:12-19). without Christ and what He did for us we would be eternally separated from God (Rom. 3:21-26). without Christ and what He did we would not be able to "let [our] requests be made known to God" (Heb. 4:14-16). we must place our faith and trust in Christ Jesus and what He did on the cross. without that, we will never be able to have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guarding our hearts and our minds.
but with it, peace is near.
see also this entry
The other day I was getting ready for work and I was not at peace, so I started quoting those verses to myself over and over again...
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.It helped to quote it over and over again, but it didn't give me complete peace. I started to mull it over in my head and meditate on what these verses meant...and I began to realize just how essential were EACH one of the things mentioned in order to obtain the final result: "the peace of God, which suprasses all comprehension [guarding] your hearts and minds"...
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"...in order to obtain perfect peace you must be rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing because of the issue that is causing you to be anxious? No, rejoicing IN it. Rejoice during it. Rejoice at all times. why? well...what's going to cause us to rejoice? when we know who God is and what He has done. I'm a wretched and filthy sinner, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me], even when [I was] dead in [my] transgressions, made [me] alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5)! God created the heavens and the earth and "[His] eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in [His] book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139:16) When I understand these truths, how can I not rejoice in who God is and what He has done? And, when I understand truths like these I realize who I am in Christ and that begins to bring me peace...but there are still more pieces...
"Let your gentle spirit be made known to all..." We need to have a gentle spirit, as opposed to an irritable or easily angered spirit. How can we have peace when we are irritable? Relax, God is in control, not you.
"The Lord is near"! What a comforting truth! Our God is not far off! He is very near. He hears us when we call! (Jer. 23:23-24)
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication..." A while ago I was studying this passage and I didn't know what 'supplication' was, so I looked it up. Basically it conveys the idea that we need to come to the Lord as a dry, parched ground desires the rain. We need to come to Him destitute. ...if we come to Him with the attitude of "God, I need some help here. Can you give me a hand? I've kinda got this figured out I just need a little help." Then we aren't coming to Him with the right attitude and we aren't going to obtain that peace. Because the truth is that we are worthless on our own and until we give it ALL to Him, we won't be able to obtain peace.
"let your requests be made known to God" ACT! we need to act! we can't just sit around and hope we will obtain peace. we need to do something about it. bring it to God. ...how can we have peace if we don't bring our needs to God and lay them at His feet? if we just keep our struggles to ourselves...we are never going to be able to solve them on our own.
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds..." this is what we desire. The peace of God. But don't forget the last part.
"...in Christ Jesus." don't miss this part, don't just let your eyes pass over those words. without the truth these three words communicate, none of the rest of this passage would be worth anything. without Christ Jesus and what He did, we would have no basis for rejoicing (see 1 Cor. 15:12-19). without Christ and what He did for us we would be eternally separated from God (Rom. 3:21-26). without Christ and what He did we would not be able to "let [our] requests be made known to God" (Heb. 4:14-16). we must place our faith and trust in Christ Jesus and what He did on the cross. without that, we will never be able to have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guarding our hearts and our minds.
but with it, peace is near.
see also this entry
Labels: scripture
posted by Elias at 00:35
6 Comments:
This is one of my favorite scriptures. God placed it on my heart when my father died. It has stayed with me ever since. I have never dug into it as much as you did. Thanks for sharing what God made evident to you today. You are an amazing young man...but then again you are a Fairfield!!
e, thanks for this! it was great to read. the passage from eph. always gives me goosebumps. "but God . . . " and that's enough for me! oh how i love Him!
Thanks for sharing Elias! This is so refreshing. Peace is definitely the theme of the week. It is so awesome to serve a God that tells us, so plainly, how to have peace. And.... His peace is not based on our circumstances it's based on Him. Therefore, we can have this peace even when everything in the natural seems a mess. Thank you Lord!!!
Wow!! Michelle told me to read your blog. Thanks for sharing your insight. God has definitely just used what you learned to speak directly to me. Thank you!!!
(Steven and Angela's mom)
Thanks Bro!! for always being such an open vessel and allowing God to pour such amazing and thirst quenching water from those words.
mmmmmmm.. yea.....like i'm waiting for a new blog....more wisdom....more truth...whats up...planification????
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