Peace
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)
I have been dealing with a problem that has persisted for close to a year, and it has caused me much anxiety. I know Psalm 27 tells us several times to “fret not,” but I’ve had difficulty doing that. Paul’s words to the Philippians (quoted above) were more able to bring me peace. There is no evil person behind my difficulty; it is a misunderstanding that was supposed to have been resolved several times during the past year, but just when I thought it was handled, it popped up again. This has happened month after month, and it has been weighing on my mind. Because I have prayed about it but, it hasn’t yet been resolved, my tendency is to believe that my faith is not strong enough to conquer this problem. God has told me that He is taking care of it, but every time it pops up, I think it’s because I haven’t believed strongly enough. So, I’m in a spiral, but I think these words from Paul will help me.
If I follow what Paul says, I will have the peace of God, not just the peace of man. If I will rejoice always, that will get my mind off the problem. If I will show my gentleness, it will be returned to me, if from no one else, it will be returned to me by God. Now the hard part for me, “Do not be anxious about anything.” But I think if I will follow all of Paul’s other instructions, the anxiousness will be washed away. When I present my problem to God in prayer WITH THANKSGIVING, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Peace from God will be mine not only in my heart, but also in my mind. And His peace “transcends all understanding.” I don’t have to understand where the peace comes from, and I don’t have to understand why I have His peace. It’s just mine, and it came from God! “Problem, quit bothering me! I’m rejoicing in the peace of God!”
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