July 8, 2023
Written By Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV — Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Worry occurs when the human mind dwells on the difficulties and problematic issues of life. It is a reflection of the mind that focuses in on the misfortune caused by some adverse circumstance that seems to be unbearable. Worry is the effect of the mind that has entered a state of hopelessness, misery, pain, sorrow, and discouragement. Such a state of mind is the result of possessing the wrong perspective and losing faith in being able to overcome the suffering caused by life’s problems.
Being anxious is depicted by a lack of trust and dependency upon God. It is failure on our part to acknowledge the sovereignty of God of having control over our lives. Thus, when this happens chaos is actively present in the lives of those who seek to encounter life's woes without the guidance and help of God.
Lee Roberson asserts that "worry is nothing but practical infidelity. The person who worries reveals his lack of trust in God and that he is trusting too much in self." 1
A breach of trust in God will rob individuals of experiencing peace.
Inner peace is replaced by turmoil and confusion when God is left out of the equation. Hence in order to be a recipient of peace, God must be at the core of one’s thoughts and thinking capacity. When God is at the center of a person's thought process even in the midst of trials then he or she will experience a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Peace That Surpasses All Understanding
Prayer and peace are interconnected as both go hand in hand in order to be a recipient of God’s peace. Prayer is the avenue by which petitioners encounter God to leave matters pertaining to the struggles of life in His hands. The process of surrendering our problems to God enables peace to flow from Him into the recesses of our mind. Peace is quietness of the soul and mind when the negative thoughts about situations and circumstances have been removed as the governing forces of the mind.
The Apostle Paul declared that the peace of God surpasses all understanding.
“Understanding” is the seat of reflective consciousness. It comprises the faculties of knowing, perceiving, judging, and determining. This peace will surpass all thinking power. It is humanly inexplicable. The peace of God surpasses human understanding.” 2
True peace comes from God. God is the source of peace. When prayer is exercised, God allows His calming presence to cause people to be at ease. There is no longer a degree of confusion, disorientation, disorder, disarray, mental exhaustion, or anxiety when peace is present. The peace of God surpasses any dire circumstance, any tumultuous discomfort, any crisis, any dilemma, any catastrophe, and any unpleasant occurrence in life.
Confidence in God allows our minds to rise above our misfortune, rise above our affliction, rise above our calamity, rise above daunting forces, rise above setbacks, rise above defeat, rise above disappointment, and rise above trials and tribulations.
Tranquility of the mind prevents us from being distracted by hurt and emotional distress. When God is our focal point, we are able to keep our eyes on Him as opposed to what is going on around us and what attempts to rise up within us when trouble is present. Walking in the love of God empowers every believer to overcome worry.
Ephesians 3:19-20 NKJV — To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
The love of Christ enables Christians to be filled with the fullness of God as opposed to being filled with our fleshly impulses when faced with uncertainties. Redirecting our minds to remember the sovereignty of God helps to suppress our carnal emotions and fleshly impulses of human thinking and logic. Therefore, grasping the concept of peace from God.
Inner peace rules the heart of every believer when we respond to our knowledge of God in the midst of trying times. Peace overrules agony. Peace overrules sorrow. Peace overrules the bitterness of troubling situations. Peace overrules grief. Peace overrules discontentment. Peace overrules stress.
The peace of God should be the ruling factor in the hearts of every believer. Colossians 3:15 is written, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called……." The peace of God does not permit the heart to be overcome by its own desirable misery at the expense of trouble. God lifts up our countenance that seeks to be overtaken by the woes of life and grants peace to the heart that trust in Him.
Psalm 29:11 NKJV — The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Thomas Watson mentioned “if God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.” 3
The ability to obtain a peace that surpasses all understanding rests in knowing that no matter what life throws at us, our joy is rooted and grounded in God through Jesus Christ. Our peace is not contingent upon our circumstances or the analysis of possible outcomes, but it is founded upon the source of peace, God, who grants calmness in the midst of our storms.
God’s Peace Offers Protection
Paul affirmed that God’s peace guards the heart and mind. Peace protects our understanding, the faculty and seat of our emotions, feelings, and thinking capacity.
Peace stands as a watchman over the faculties of the mind.
It prevents the hostile takeover of carnal and humanized thinking. At various times in life, we all have thoughts that are intrusive and unwelcomed. The root of these thoughts stands against the truth found in God.
The peace of God guards our minds from irrational thinking, irrational impulses and behavior, irrational reactions, and irrational thoughts of ascribing power to our problems.
Peace safeguards the mind from overthinking, overreacting, and undermining God’s power from being able to be seen in our predicament. Peace protects the mind from doubting God. Peace protects the minds from being the breeding grounds of mixed thoughts. That is to say, the mind should not be divided on the power of God, His ability to intervene and respond to our prayers, or a question of His nature.
Many times, when people are going trouble some form of adversity, they often begin to ponder and juggle different back and forth thoughts or views of God.
Can God really deliver me from my crisis?
Does God see my dilemma?
Does God even care about what I am going through?
Why is God allowing this to happen?
I thought that God loved me.
A multitude of thoughts will arise that gives way for people to become double-minded. However, the peace of God will help individuals from being double-minded or unstable in all of their ways.
Isaiah 26:3 NKJV —You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
Corruptible thoughts are kept at bay when a person's mind is preoccupied with God. Peace is afforded unto every believer that has a God-focused and Christ-focused temperament.
The mind that is governed by God is a mind at peace.
The notion of being governed by God's peace is interconnected to the wisdom that God gives unto believers as we trust Him and draw closer to Him. Proverbs 2:6-8 reveals "For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints." If we trust God, He will uphold us and protect us from the things that attempt to flood our minds and rob us of our peace in Him. The wisdom of God teaches us how to think biblically when problems arise, how to spiritually evaluate our circumstances through the lens of God’s Word, how to have a spirit of discernment to know that which is based on God’s truth in contrast to those things that lead to spiritual error, and how to develop godly insight from Scripture to overcome problematic hardships.
Proverbs 2:10-11 NKJV —When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you.
Discretion and understanding are defenses against things that oppose God. Discretion and understanding guards the mind against confusion, lack of peace, chaos, doubt, fear, hopelessness, distrust, evil, and every demonic influence of the mind that is against the order of God. The internalize wisdom of God in our hearts allows the peace of God to guard our way, to protect our minds against worldly influence, to protect us against despair, and to protect us against being overtaken by the deceitfulness of Satan.
Peace guards our hearts and minds by filtering our emotional responses and thoughts pertaining to life through God’s Word.
The protective agent of God’s Word allows the elect of God to enjoy the benefits of living a well-guarded life as a means of conquering defeat, worry, and anxiety.
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