The Peace of God


Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God often seems so far away, and so unattainable. However, right here Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi states that the peace of God will surround our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. So what gives? Why do we feel stressed, and ill at ease? I think the key phrase here is “in Christ Jesus” I have talked a lot about the importance of being in Jesus’ presence and I think this verse only strengthens my case and my words back at my own heart. I have noticed over and over again how I see the importance of being in the presence of the all mighty but I don’t act on what I’m seeing or writing in my IBS’. Honestly I’m not quite sure how to get there. Being in God’s presence requires, in my mind, spending time with Him, building a relationship with Him. I’ve felt the need to read my bible more but I often find myself getting nothing out of it. I have recently realized that God matches our level of commitment. If you’re like me and you give God one hour in the morning, and maybe a few prayers during the day then you’ll find, as I have, that there are two problems with this. First you don’t feel fulfilled or at peace with God, you find yourself waxing and yielding to the sleepiness in the morning until you have completely cut out your time with God and aren’t even upset about it. Second you might notice that this schedule leaves very little time for God to speak to you, if you are half heartedly reading your bible in the morning while blinking the sand out of your eyes you are not really focused on getting anything from God and, just like you stop listening to a teacher as she drones on, you have closed your ears to God. From there you go on about your day and maybe pray over a meal or send up a quick pray before dealing with a difficult situation but you still haven’t listened to anything God is telling you. Sadly this perfectly describes most days for me, sometimes something will happen for example “IGNITE” and I will get renewed vigor to read my bible because “it’s the thing to do” but I usually slip back into my old habits and begin to feel restless and anxiety creeps back into my life because I stop even trying to spend time with God. You don’t have to spend hours dedicated to reading the bible each day, if you’re anything like me it will become a chore you despise, but you should spend some time dedicatedly seeking God and carefully listening for His responses. It requires effort and there are no promises God will respond right away but you will be blessed for the time you spend with God, reading His word or praying, all of it will do things you may not see for years to come but it will be rewarded by God who sees all things, even the little things like getting out of bed when you don’t want to, in order to spend time developing a relationship with God. As you spend dedicated time with our Father you will begin to feel and know His peace in situations when you wouldn’t normally have peace, a peace which transcends all human knowledge and goes straight to your heart and spirit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lord on High

Psalm 93:4 “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.” The Lord on high is mighty. We just finished our Khmer classes are getting ready to start into more of ministry work we will be doing for the next five and a half months. As I am getting ready for this change I realized that I had grown very impatient, I wanted to start moving and shaking Cambodia when our feet hit the ground. Since being here, I’ve realized that waiting for God’s timing is not only necessary but very rewarding. I’ve seen through many people’s life stories how waiting for God brought about God’s will and how when we try to forge ahead in our own timing we always mess up what we are intending to speed up. Even then, I am blown away by how God chooses to take our mistakes and manifest Himself and His goodness through them. He is mightier than we have or ever will be able to give Him credit for. God truly is the Lord on hig
Read more

The Lord Has Made All

Proverbs 16:4 “The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes even the wicked for the day of doom.” The other day I was lamenting why God would make such bugs as termites, cockroaches, spiders and other creepy crawlies that seem to serve no purpose other to annoy me. When my teammate seriously challenged me to ask God, This seemed really silly to me, why would He care to answer such a silly little question. Well I finally decided to ask Him, and I really believe He gave me the answer in the form of this verse. My teammate also pointed out that before sin was brought into the world these creatures probably did do something worth while. Anywho, back to this verse, I prayed and then opened my bible app to find the above verse. Stating that God really did make all things and creatures for Himself, even the wicked He made for the day of judgement. Now this may seem extremely controversial, Why would a good God make bad things? Well the answer is very simple really, it goes ba
Read more

Heirs of God

Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. God never promised us life would be easy. In fact Jesus said we would be persecuted because of Him. However, he has made us His sons and daughters so we are now also made heirs to everything God has. We have access to our Heavenly Father at all times through His Holy Spirit. It says in James that we should rejoice whenever trials and tribulations come our way because it only increases our reward in heaven. I am called to pick up my cross and follow Jesus with all that I am for the rest of my life. This will require many hard days, hard weeks, and hard years to come but I am assured through all these things God will be right by my side through every trial and tribulation. I am reminded by this verse that it is all for good that I go through trials. I know in the end I will be lifted up with Him who died to
Read more