Philippians 4:7
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
This verse speaks of God’s peace guarding our hearts. This is something that everyone is seeking even though most don’t know it. I heard a pastor say long ago that most psychological issues could be resolved if they knew that God loves and forgives them. To know that in practice is far different than knowing it in theory. Most worshippers of all religions are seeking to stop God from being mad with them.
How do we get this peace? We must be God’s child, not in the general sense, but we must have gone to Him and asked for His forgiveness through Jesus’ blood. We also must have accepted Him as Lord. That is, “You’re the Boss.”
Once His child we have His forgiveness. A blanket of peace enters in. Just like a baby is new, so He gives us a new nature. He also connects with us. Romans 8:15b-16 says, ‘you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.’ His Spirit testifies with our spirits. We feel and sense His love, forgiveness and His pleasure. This is huge. God plan for us in creation has been fulfilled. But’s there’s more.
Unfortunately we aren’t in heaven so there’s the world that wars against us. We also have our old nature that is selfish and gets us into trouble. There is also the devil that seeks to disrail us. All these make us fearful and anxious. All this is what fits into the verse previous to today’s verse. It says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”, (v. 6). We are to pray and sometimes plead, then give thanks.
Prayer is asking God for things and talking to Him. That is to be part of our lives. This is natural, as He’s our father. We want to do that. He loves us and seeks to bless us. We are to “walk with Him and talk with Him”. If something is making us anxious, then our prayers are more intense. This gets into pleading.
Pleading with God is different from the casual daily talks with God. We’re concerned if not scared. Hebrews 4:16 tells us what to do, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” We are in our prayer closets and focused. We also may be in the middle of the day and are unable for a timeout to pray. We launch a “Help!”.
Once we pray we give thanks. We can do this because we have faith in the Lord. This is more than positive thinking. Faith is God’s gift to us. We BELIEVE. We know it because we know Him. He gives us this confidence that it’ll be ok.
Our faith is something God wants us to nurture. This is mainly done by reading His Word, the bible, and hearing sermons. Romans 8:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Faith must be fed otherwise it gets weak. We won’t have that bold confidence that it’s ok. Faith is also fed by associating with other believers and sharing our faith. Those are some of the building blocks of a believer’s daily life.
As we pray and trust we are to give thanks for God working out our problems. We don’t know how He’ll do it, but He does. That is the blessing of walking with God. He’s got it under control. We aren’t sure how, but He does.
Sometimes He allows some tough things. We need to go to Him for consolation. He will work it out for the good. It will take a while for that to be realized. We may never know. Yet we trust Him.
He allows us to weather the storms. Once Jesus was giving some hard truths; some were leaving Him. Jesus asked the disciples if they would leave also. John 6:68 gives a great response, ‘Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”‘ So true. Where else would we go. Only God can help.
Even in these tough times are we to give thanks. It won’t be jubilant, but deep and real. There is such freedom here. Expectations melt away. We are thankful.
As we pray or plead and give thanks God’s peace guards our hearts. This is supernatural. We aren’t conjuring it up. God gives His peace. It’s not tricky or complicated. Ask, thank Him and praise, then peace.
God’s peace in our hearts is meant to be a constant companion. All day, every day it’s there. Today’s verse says it guards our hearts. Fear and sin can cause it to disappear. Avoid those. Sometimes God will lift His peace when He wants our attention or to go a different route. Look up and pray and ask which way to go.
Lord, thank You for Your peace. It’s the calm in our storms and the ever present gift from You. Mainly it’s a reminder that You are there. Thank You.