Peace, What Peace?

Philippians 4:1, 4-9

1 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 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.

8 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. 9 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.

Verse 1 is a cry from my heart as well to my friends. I do not get to see most of them as much as I would like to.

I like the Amplified version of verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice!" Notice it says "always". It doesn't say when you are happy. It doesn't say when everything is going your way. It doesn't say when you feel like it. It says ALWAYS. That means ALWAYS! When we consider that no matter what happens to us on a daily basis or even over our entire lifetime, if we are in Christ we win in the end. Why not rejoice over that?

Verse 5 in the Amplified gives some more clarity, "Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He is coming soon]." Everyone should be able to witness, understand and acknowledge our unselfishness, considerateness and our forgiving spirit. If they can't see it in you, why should they listen to your words? A sermon is better caught than taught.

Verse 6 is a reminder again for those who are worry warts. When you worry about things you are focusing on the negative aspect of the circumstance that is contrary to God's Word. In other words, you don't believe God and choose to listen to what the devil is saying. Tell God what you need and thank Him for everything He has done for you in the past. When you develop this type of attitude you can then have what verse 7 talks about, God's peace. This would be the same peace that Jesus talks about in this verse:

John 14:27 (AMP)

Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

Notice that God's peace exceeds anything we can understand or contemplate on our own. His peace will guard our hearts and minds and protect us from the devil's schemes to get us into worry and despair.

What verse 8 is talking about can be summed up with these words, Think about God, think about His Word, think about Jesus. These are the things to keep in our hearts and our minds. If we truly love Him with ALL our heart, ALL our mind and ALL our strength, then that is what we will think about. That is what we will give our praise and worship to. That is the life we will live. Those are the benefits we will experience.

Verse 9 reminds us again that it is not only lip service to what we are taught in the Word. We must put into action what our faith is, otherwise our faith is dead. When we do those things then we know we will live in the peace of God and that peace will exceed anything we could ever hope to create for ourselves. Amen.

Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)

The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).

Published by Erik L. Vakula
Daily Bread From the Word
Copyright © 2009 Erik Vakula, All Rights Reserved