Perfect Peace from a
Perfect God
With
anxiety and depression on the increase, even in peaceful prosperous nations
like Australia, people are spending millions of dollars to find relief. Yet,
the best peace, indeed, perfect peace, you can receive for free.
The
road to ‘perfect peace’ is found through God’s peace process.
So
far, we have learned the following steps to God’s peace process:
1.
Pre-requisite to peace: Make a
decision not allow your heart to be troubled or afraid, because Jesus is
sending His peace to you (John 14:27).
2.
Peace established: When you say ‘Yes’ to
the gospel, you have reconciliation and peace with God (Romans 5:1);
3.
Protective, prevailing peace: God’s peace
is like the body guard that keeps your heart and mind safe in Christ
(Philippians 4:6-7).
4.
Great peace: As you grow in God’s
peace, it will build a protective shield against hurt and offence. When people
get offended, they build a ‘Berlin Wall’ around themselves as a prison. With
God’s peace, the wall comes crashing down (Psalm 119:165).
As
always in God, there is more and more and more. The same applies to his peace
process. For in this fifth and final step, you are invited to reach out to God’s
‘perfect peace.’ Once achieved, you will be in an enviable state that cannot be
shaken, rocked, dislodged, or distressed.
An
example of ‘perfect peace’ is found in Psalm 46:1-3 (KJV):
God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Selah
When
you can stay cool, calm and serene while the earth is moving under your feet
and mountains are being thrown into the sea, then you have a ‘God-type of
peace.’ Since God Himself is a rock, all who build their lives on Him will
never be shaken.
So
how do we achieve ‘perfect peace?’ The same way that you enter into the
heavenly peace process in the first place. By coming unto God and obeying His
word.
Regarding
perfect peace, we come to Isaiah 26:3-4 (NKJV):
You
will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts
in You.4 Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH
(JEHOVAH), the Lord, is everlasting strength.
This passage is a great encouragement during times of
waiting, uncertainty, even crisis. So let’s see how to apply in one’s life.
Perfect
Peace comes when you focus on God
When a fighter pilot wants to attack an opponent, they
take their view-finder, locate the target, ‘lock-in on it,’ and then press the
button. This is guaranteed to achieve the objective.
We actually do the same thing with God, though with a
different motive and outcome. Cutting out the multi-tasking, multi-minded
distractions, we put our sole (and soul) focus on the Lord and keep it there.
God is the God of Peace (Romans 15:33; 16:20; Philippians 4:9; I Thessalonians
5:23; Hebrews 13:20); and Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the ‘Prince of Peace’ (Isaiah
9:6). As we single-mindedly focus on the Lord, God downloads all the peace we
need!
To fulfil the condition of having your mind stayed on
God, it involves a few practical things:
1. Devotional Bible reading: Read the word as
part of your daily quiet time - if you don’t have one, its time to get one.
Without ‘quiet time,’ you will not enter into God’s peace process and/or be a
fruit-bearing disciple of Christ.
2. Bible study: Take time - short or
long - to learn more of the Word;
3. Meditation: Joshua 1 and Psalm 1
promise that those who meditate on God’s Word will prosper in everything they
do. This means to relax, focus on God’s Word, go over the promised verse again
and again, putting an accent mark on different aspects. For example, in our key
verse, meditation means we think and/or say aloud softly:
•
You will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You;
•
You will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You;
•
You will keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You;
•
A focused mind brings
perfect peace;
•
Perfect peace comes
from trusting God;
•
God keeps (continually)
us in perfect peace;
•
Trusting God is the key
to perfect peace.
Repeat this process again and again until you are
filled with insight, wisdom, and peace.
With so much emphasis from worldly sources about the
benefits of meditation, remember that it is a Biblically-endorsed practice
provided you are focusing on the Bible and, most importantly, the God of the
Bible.
Perfect
peace comes from trusting God
Trusting is something even a child can understand. Yet
what we all need to understand is that trusting God is a commandment, it is
disarmingly simple, the secret of superlative blessing, and it is the source of
unshakeable, perfect, and everlasting peace.
1.
To be totally confident in God;
2.
To draw strength from the Almighty;
3.
Seek refuge in God;
4.
Hand over all control to God;
5.
Let God carry you and your burdens. As one
Bible teacher put it: ‘Let God do the heavy lifting.’
Neither I nor anyone I know, after having posted a letter in the bright
red postbox, tossed and turned at night worrying that their letter would not
arrive at its destination. The reason is that we ‘trust’ Australia Post to be
reliable and competent enough to deliver our mail, despite the vast distances
of this island continent.
The same thing applies to God: Like the letter to the postbox, we commit
all our needs, desires, prayer requests, literally everything to the Almighty.
Then we trust God to bring it to past. We stop controlling, worrying, or
percolating over the issues - it is in God’s hands so we can, like a
slow-cooker in the kitchen, ‘set and forget.’
Focus and trust in God will fast-track you from fear and worry to peace
and strength. You will live your life in the LORD, the solid rock, and you will
be unshakeable.
Enter in now to God’s peace process and you will have what the world
doesn’t know and money cannot buy.
[1] "KJV Search Results for "trust"." Blue Letter
Bible. Accessed 8 Jan, 2016. http://www.blueletterbible.orghttps://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm
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