Prescription for Peace Conclusion

In the previous four blogs, we have identified three major roadblocks to finding the peace of God in our lives: guilt, worry, and fear.

We've discovered God's prescription for peace in Philippians 4, It works every time, in every case, if applied moment by moment according to the instructions of our Great Physician:

• Confess your sins.
• Trust Jesus.
• Seek God's Kingdom first (Matt. 6:33).
• Rejoice in the Lord (v. 4)
• Don't worry, but pray (v. 6)
• Keep your mind fixed on Jesus, who will guide you through the storms of life (v. 7,9).
• Dwell on good, helpful thoughts (v. 8)
• Replace guilt, worry, and fear with meditation on the Word of God and prayer.
• Remember we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (v. 13) and
• God has promised to supply all our needs according to His endless riches (v. 19).

Before we leave this topic, perhaps we need to discuss what the peace of God is NOT. It is not the absence of conflict. Instead, it is a condition of self-assurance unperturbed by the storms of life.

An artist was commissioned to paint a picture depicting peace. When his painting was unveiled, people expected to see an idyllic scene. It was not what they had expected. They gasped.

Stormy Seas Courtesy of Google.com

The artist had painted a raging storm on a rocky coast. Dark, racing clouds obscured the sun. Angry waves crashed against jagged cliffs. Violent winds flung spray and spume against the rocks.

In the center of all that mayhem was a tiny cleft in the storm-battered cliff in which sat a tiny bird sheltered from the raging storm all around him.

That is the kind of peace God gives. He is our shelter in the time of storm. He is our rock and our salvation.

"The Lord is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble" (Psalm 46:1). 

"He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him" (Psalm 91:2).

"I am trusting you, O Lord...My future is in your hands." (Psalm 31:14, 15).

Note: Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright c 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Prescription for Peace Part 1

At the beginning of a new year, a clean canvas stretches out in front of us just waiting for us to pick up our paintbrush and add that first stroke of color. We are eager to start. We make New Year's resolutions.

Courtesy of Google.com

Yet, we hesitate to touch the brush to the paint. Which color do we use first? That vast white unknown seems daunting. Memories of all the failed attempts and past mistakes cause our hand to tremble. Fear of imagined future disasters (which, by the way, may never come) paralyze us.

We long for peace, but peace is elusive.

We can't read far into the Apostle Paul's writings (especially Romans 7) before we realize that he too struggled to find peace. "I am all too human," Paul lamented. "I want to do what is right, but I can't."

Then, in Philippians 4:6-9 (NLT), we find Paul's prescription for 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. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, 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 received from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you."

It's all in our thought life!

But thoughts seem to just pop up out of nowhere, don't they? Not really. Remember that old computer adage, "Garbage in, garbage out"? Jesus said that "whatever is in your heart [your thoughts] determines what you say" (Matthew 12:34) and do. When we feed our minds on the unholy, the unclean, and the perverted, our thoughts, words, and deeds will be evil too. So the first step in controlling our thoughts is to stop feeding on garbage. Instead, feast on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

What do we do when those evil thoughts from our past sinful life come to mind?

I've heard it said that "the birds can fly over your head, but you don't have to let them make a nest in your hair." Likewise, when peace-shattering thoughts come into our minds, we don't have to latch onto them and entertain them.

When I was a girl, I heard an advertising jingle for a particular brand of beer on the radio. It was a catchy tune. It sang itself over and over in my head. I couldn't seem to get free of it--until I began to quote a Scripture verse or sing a hymn. I soon realized that I couldn't think two things at the same time. I could replace unwanted thoughts with the Word of God or a spiritual song.

How can we control our thoughts? Through prayer and thanksgiving, by refusing to worry, by fixing our minds on God's Word and putting into practice what He says.

In my next blog posts, I will discuss three areas of our thought life that can rob us of peace:

• Guilt 
• Worry
• Fear