Peace in the Chaos - Part 2a - If I am Following Christ, Why Don't I Have Peace? - The Mind

Last week I started a short series on the idea of finding peace in the midst of these chaotic times. I looked at words Jesus spoke to His disciples from John 16:33 and pointed out six different important points from the verse: Jesus’ words had a purpose; He wants us to have peace; our peace is directly connected to Him; we will have trouble in this world; we can take courage; and Jesus has overcome the world.

This week I want to focus on why we, so often, don’t have peace even when we are Christ followers. Remember from John 16:33 Jesus said, “…so that in Me you may have peace…” By using the word “may” it is clear we have a choice, otherwise I believe the verse would have been written, “…you will have peace…” Tapping into Jesus’ peace, or into the Prince of Peace is a choice of our will.

I could probably write another whole series on why we don’t have peace, but to keep it to just a few blog posts I want to simply paint a broad brush stroke by focusing on: the mind, the emotions and the body.

The Mind. I think it is obvious to most of us that we have much more information filling our minds today than we did even 20 years ago. It’s not just that we have access to more, but that there are so many other voices to listen to. There are times I feel there is a demonic element to social media and all its tentacles, but I will save that for another post. For the purposes of this post I want to delve into the ideas of alignment and focus.

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The question we have to ask ourselves is who or what am I aligning myself with, and is that producing the soil of peace in my life. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments has guidelines on association. In the book of Joshua, the people of Israel are told to not associate with the nations in the Promised Land that they were going into.

“6 Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,
7 so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them.
8 But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. ”

— Joshua 23:6-8 (NASB 1995)

Proverbs 20:19 tells us to not associate with gossips. Proverbs 22:24 tells us to not associate with those who are given to anger, or hot tempered. The whole book of Proverbs is a how-to on relationships and how to live in a godly manner.

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In the New Testament Paul tells us not to associate with immoral people, but he is not talking about immoral people out in the world: the clerk at the grocery store, your employer, the friend you have had since grade school. Paul is talking about immoral people who are in the church and who are claiming to follow Christ. We can’t live in this world and not associate with people who don’t know Jesus. They are everywhere and some of them are in our own families. As Paul said, “…for then you would have to go out of the world.” (I Corinthians 5:9-13.)

In addition we need to look at what philosophies, schools of thought, teachings, etc. we are aligning ourselves with. There is nothing wrong with reading, listening to, discussing ideas that are not Biblical. We are taught evolution in school from elementary school up. We read fiction books for entertainment and watch movies like Harry Potter. However, this is not to be our main focus.

Focus involves zeroing in on something. When we are focused, our attention is pointed to something specific. As Paul tells us in the verses below we are meant to “fix our eyes on Jesus.”

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“1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

— Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB 1995)

To put it plainly, we are not to buy into the things the world wants to sell us. For every person we listen too, and every article we read, and every song we hear we have to take its message back to God’s word. We have to have Holy Spirit clarity on each and every message we hear, because as the verses below states, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”

The world says marriage is optional. The world says same sex love is okay. The world says gender not sex. The world says abortion rights are more important than the children being aborted. The world says Jesus came to preach love. When you take these things to Scripture that is not what we see.

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Now, let me take a moment to say, if I decide to spend more time listening to pod casts about these topics, or I focus on what I don’t agree with in Scripture I will, after a while begin to doubt and question truth. I will begin to ask, “Whose truth is it? Who has a right to dictate truth? Isn’t truth what I make of it? I can’t trust your version of truth because it doesn’t line up with my choices and desires.” These ideas become the speculations and lofty things that are raised up against the knowledge of God. Thus the importance of “…taking every thought captive.” Not just captive, like wild horses in a corral, but captive “…to the obedience of Christ.”

“5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ”

— 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB 1995)

How does all of this affect our peace? To finish out this post on the mind let’s look at a few verses from the Psalmist.

“I will hear what God the Lord will say;
For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;
But let them not turn back to folly.”

— Psalm 85:8 (NASB 1995)

“165 Those who love Your law have great peace,
And nothing causes them to stumble.”

— Psalm 119:165 (NASB 1995)

When we fill our minds with God’s words we have peace. He says it is so, and His word is truth.

Finally, look at this verse.

“6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,”

— Romans 8:6 (NASB 1995)

It cannot be any clearer than that. If we set our mind on the Spirit, and all the knowledge the Spirit gives us through God’s word we will have peace.

Next week we will look at our emotions and how they can keep us from experiencing God’s peace. Have a great week!

Peace In the Chaos - Part 1 - Jesus, Our True Peace

I have thought lately, if I could manufacture peace in some sort of solid form, and sell it, I would be a billionaire. Peace seems as elusive as a night time mist that disappears in the morning sunlight. We are in the midst of a chaotic time in a chaotic world, and there are moments when peace seems to have withdrawn never to be found again.

Jesus knew there would be difficulty in life. The following verse comes at the end of a speech Jesus gives to His disciples where He shares words of warning, words of promise, words of prophecy and words on prayer. Read John 16 for the full context.

“33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.””

— John 16:33 (NASB 1995)

There are six things we can take away from this one verse that might help us in our search for peace.

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1 - Jesus spoke these words for a purpose. These would be the words that came before. Jesus didn’t want His followers to be blindsided. He wanted them to know what to expect. If we read the whole of the Scriptures, we can see that it was written so that we have this benefit as well. We are given God’s words so that we know what to expect when we sin, when we repent, when we are thankful, when we are sad, when we are disobedient or when we are lost. God’s Words are the Good News of Jesus Christ and the judgment to those who prefer to walk in darkness. The Bible isn’t some laced together ramblings of approximately 40 men over a period of 1500 years just to deceive mankind into following a cult. The Bible has a purpose, and that purpose is our reconciliation to God through Jesus’ death and resurrection brought about by His deep and amazing love for us, His Creation.

“16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

— 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB 1995)

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2 - Jesus wants us to have peace. If you are like me you may have struggled with the idea that God is truly loving. I used to think He was just waiting around for me to do something bad, and then BANG, He’d drop the hammer on me. Thankfully, as I have grown and matured as a Christ follower, I have come to realize this is absolutely not true. God’s love for us is so perfect that He cannot have bad, or ulterior motives, such as seeing us suffer just for suffering’s sake.

“1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. ”

— 1 John 3:1 (NASB 1995)

We are called His children. If you are a parent, especially one that really loves your kids, then you know why this is so mind blowing. The God of the universe loved us enough that He gives us the opportunity to become His children. Wow! Here’s a few more verses to drive this point home.

“15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

— Romans 8:15-17 (NASB 1995)

Jesus and His Father want us to have peace, as any loving parent would want for their children. As a parent I can testify how heart wrenching it is when your children do not have peace. This brings me to the next point Jesus makes connected directly to this idea of peace.

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3 - Our peace is directly connected to Christ. Read carefully what Jesus says about peace, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.” The Christ follower’s peace goes hand in hand with Jesus. We will never have true, abiding peace without Him. Look what Isaiah prophesied:

“6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

— Isaiah 9:6 (NASB 1995)

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He owns it. He is peace personified, and if we know Him, we too can have that peace.

I want to point out a little detail. Jesus says, “…so that in Me you MAY have peace.” We can know Jesus and still not have His peace. I will explore this idea in a future post, but for now rest in the fact that He is our peace, and without Him chaos will easily reign.

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4 - We will have trouble in this world. Why are we shocked by the things happening in our country? We live in a fallen, darkened world. Trouble comes in all forms with a capital T. Whether we are dealing with our own difficulties: illness, financial burdens, relationship issues; or we are anxious due to the choices of others, our lives are constantly exposed to trouble. Our exposure is even more pronounced because we have phones, pads, and other tech to keep us up on what is happening all over the world almost at the exact moment it is happening.

A friend recently sent me a short video of a trauma therapist talking about how we are not meant to see some of the things we are seeing on the internet in this day and age. For example the killings of both Renee Good and Alex Pretti, whatever your point of view is on those, are not events we should be watching at all, let alone over and over from multiple angles. It desensitizes us and also raises our anxiety level. It makes me think, let’s not add trouble to the troubles we already have. Not that we shouldn’t be informed, but reading an article is a lot different than viewing images and video.

Remember who is on the prowl. That same one will use these troubles to create what? Peace? No! Chaos.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

— I Peter 5:8 (NASB 1995)

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5 - We can take courage. It is very easy to let anxiety and fear run rampant in our minds and hearts when we see these discouraging events taking place; even more so, if we are already burdened with other difficulties. I know what is is like to be spread thin, as I am sure so many of you do too. With my health being a constant struggle and a constant mystery I already have days where I get easily discouraged. Add to that the loss of my mom on Christmas morning and then getting the flu right after we got through the funeral and the travel involved and you can bet I was feeling less than courageous.

I don’t have all the answers for difficult times except this one thing: lean in. Lean in to the grief, the sadness, the anger, the discouragement, and most importantly lean in to Christ and the truth of the Word.

“9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

— Joshua 1:9 (NASB 1995)

God made clear to Joshua that he did not need to be afraid, and that he could be strong and courageous. He didn’t need to be anxious or confused. Why? Because God was with him, and that same God is with us.

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6 - Jesus has overcome the world. Nothing gives my heart more peace than those last words Jesus told his disciples. “I have overcome the world.” He didn’t say, “I might”, or “maybe some day I will”, but “I have.” Jesus has already overcome the anger, the conflict, the disunity, the fear, the selfishness, the pride, the lust for more power, and the darkness. The gospel of John confirms this idea.

“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

— John 1:1-5 (ESV)

There is no difficulty, or person, or event that can overcome Jesus, the light of the world.

Maintaining the Presence of Peace

If you have been following along, you know I have been talking about the last name of Jesus mentioned in Isaiah 9:6, Prince of Peace. Even though we often refer to that scripture at Christmas, I believe it is one that we should look at again and again. We need to be reminded who this One is that we call Lord and Savior.

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While it is true that we always have the Prince of Peace with us, as I explain last week, we don’t always feel His peace. We all to often allow life and all of its difficulties and distractions to take the place of peace in our hearts.

Many of you are probably familiar with the “love bank” idea created by Dr. Willard F. Harley, clinical psychologist and author of a variety of relationship and marriage books, including His Needs, Her Needs. The sum up is that the more we put into someone else’s love bank, the more they will feel loved. When we criticize, demand, or do unkind things we make withdrawals from the their love bank, thus causing damage to the relationship.

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I believe we can use a similar analogy when it comes to peace in our lives. When we read God’s word, pray, have fellowship with others, and abide in Him we add to our “peace bank”. When we neglect those activities, or do things that go against God and His truth, we make withdrawals from the bank. It is easy to suddenly find ourselves lacking funds in our bank account when we have been living life in our own strength and might.

For this final post on the Prince of Peace, I would like to look at some of the tools we can use to ensure our peace banks never run low. I want to look at a few specific ideas. As I said earlier, prayer, God’s word, etc. help us maintain peace, but I want to look at specific thoughts in this regard.

1 - Prayer

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a - Prayers of confession and repentance. There is nothing faster at removing our peace than unconfessed sin. I like the idea of keeping “short accounts”. Did I hurt someone’s feelings at work today? Did I gossip when I was with my lady friends at lunch? Did I speak harshly towards my spouse? We must be ever vigilant to keep our minds and hearts clean before our Prince of Peace.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

— 1 John 1:9 (NASB 1995)

b - Prayers of release. As a parent, and grandparent, this is one of the hardest things to do. You might wonder, if I let it go, how is that going to give me peace? Don’t I have to do something about it? Actually, the most important thing we can do is to lay our fears, doubts and desires at the foot of the cross. We need to find our Lord to be the most trustworthy friend we will ever have. Let go of those things that are troubling you and let Him be God.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

— Philippians 4:6

2 - Scripture

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a - Using God’s Word for meditation. When we are having difficulty with peace going back to God’s word and mulling it over helps to bring back our connection to the Prince of Peace. I always have a journal and at least a pen when I read passages from the Word. The Holy Spirit is always able to give us new insights, even from passages we have read over and over. I am not afraid to underline and write notes in my Bible either. Being centered on His holy Word will always reconnect us to our wonderful Prince of Peace.

“And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes.”

— Psalm 119:48 (NASB 1995)

b - Using God’s Word for battle. I have discussed my walkabouts on here before, but as a refresher, a walkabout is when I pace around my house praying out loud for the purpose of spiritual warfare. I do this often when I am praying for my children, grandsons and my spouse, although, many people end up on my walkabout list, because so many are struggling. During these times of intense communication with God, I take the Words He has inspired in the Bible and I pray them back to Him.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

— Ephesians 6:17 (NASB 1995)

The Word of God is not passive. According to Hebrews 4:12 it is, “living and active.”

“ For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

— Hebrews 4:12 (NASB 1995)

3 - Changing our thought life.

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This might seem obvious, and certainly spending more time in prayer and the Word of God will help. However, I thought it important to give this a little more emphasis since we can change our thoughts by doing other things as well. The mind is not the only part of our bodies affected by a lack of peace. Anxiety, anger, lust, bitterness, and lack of forgiveness can affect our digestive systems, cause aches and pains and can rev up the inflammation triggers all over our bodies. One of the main areas we can control is our thoughts.

a - Scriptures to help our thoughts:

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

— Philippians 4:8 (NASB 1995)

“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You..”

— Isaiah 26:6 (NKJV)

“The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.”

— Psalm 29:11 (NASB 1995)

“Those who love Your Law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.”

— Psalm 119:165 (NASB 1995)

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.”

— Isaiah 26:3 (NASB 1995)

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:7 (NASB 1995)

I am particularly fond of this last verse. The word guard in this verse evokes the idea of a battalion of soldiers standing guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is what God’s word says about His peace. His peace is beyond our comprehension, meaning we can have it, even when it doesn’t make any sense, and it will be like a company of warriors watching over our hearts and minds.

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c - Other ways to maintain our peace:

There are plenty of secular things people do to give them peace of mind from meditation, and medication, to music, to exercise and getting outside. All of these are good, but don’t forget, as a Christ follower your peace ultimately comes from the Prince of Peace. Nothing else will give you true, deep, lasting peace like Jesus.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the word peace, and our Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Please let me know in the comments how our Prince has given His peace to you.