“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6
Easier to read it, but apply it? Do not be anxious about anything…ANYTHING?
How is that possible? How is it possible to obtain a peace that when in the back of your mind you have an endless list of things to do? Or you just got laid off from work and you are wondering when the next source of income will come?
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7
Peace is attainable, but the peace that surpasses all understanding is the peace we receive from God.
What’s different is that we need to be in Christ to obtain this type of peace. It requires us to trust and have faith in God who shows us love, joy, and His peace.
I can only imagine the emotions once reality set in for the disciples when Jesus told His disciples that He would no longer physically be with them. The questions, the concerns, anger, and fears.
We see this back and forth between Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot) asking Jesus where He would be going and how would they know? (John 14:5-22)
Their teacher, their Messiah, and their friend would no longer be there to help them or guide them. But GOD would not leave them alone or without the confidence and authority they had been given by Christ.
““If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,” John 14:15-16
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:26-27
Reread that.
“PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE”
“Not as the world gives do I give to you”
That is His promise - It is His promise that He will give us His peace, not as the world will.
The more we cling to God, His Word, and His presence, we will see a shift in our responses. Our circumstances may not always change, but how we react will.
When we abide in the true vine it will produce the supernatural peace that we cannot create on our own. It is the peace of God that gives us strength on the days we receive that diagnosis, when we lose our job, when we don’t have a plan B, our God gives us His peace that surpasses all understanding because our hope is in Christ.
It is the hope we have in Christ that on this side of eternity, yes, we will experience trials and tribulations but we can experience and encounter His peace that no other creation can. The peace of God that gives us hope knowing that one day we will have the fullness of peace in eternity with Christ.
As Galatians 5 shares the fruit of the spirit when we abide in Christ it also tells us what we produce when we abide in our flesh.
The things of this world will only give us fake peace, will only leave a temporary satisfaction and a wider void in our souls that will bring more destruction. The lies from the enemy will tell us we cannot have peace.
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:24-25
It is a battle between the flesh and spirit and we will have to choose every morning to choose to abide in the vine or the flesh, but when we choose Christ, we know we have victory in Him.
When anxiety arises, when worries try to take over our circumstances, let us take that first step to cling to Christ who is our perfect peace. Because, yes, this world will try to take our peace, but Christ has overcome this world and has not left us without hope.
~ Sarah Moon
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