4SpiritualSecrets

The peace of God… will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7, 12, 13)

I conclude my summary of Paul’s prescription for the peace of God with this condition for attaining and maintaining the peace of God: rest in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean to rest in Christ Jesus? What does it mean to be in Christ? When they want to describe the relationship we have with the risen Christ, the authors of the New Testament say it’s to be “in Christ.” Paul uses this description ninety-seven times in his writings.

According to Jesus, the expression means that we are in union with Him, as a branch is in union with a vine. If we are involved in the work of God, then all day long we are going to be faced with the impossible – things we cannot do – because they are His work and we cannot do His work. We can only be vehicles through which He does His work. When we lose sight of the obvious reality that it is His work, and only He can do His work, if we think it all depends on us, we lose our peace, big time!

Perhaps the greatest “peace thief” devout disciples of Jesus experience is doing the work of Christ in our own strength. What I call “Four Spiritual Secrets” is the solution to that problem. These four secrets are my way of expressing what it means to “rest in Christ Jesus.” (You will find them in the margin of these blogs).

“If you value the approval the God…”
(Philippians 4:8)

Have you made the observation that Jesus asked a lot of questions? The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus asking 83 questions. He asked a profound question in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John: “How can you believe since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from God?”

Abraham was told by God, “Walk before Me” (Genesis 17:1). How many of us do that? Do we really move through a twenty-four hour day holding in focus how God feels about who we are, what we are and all the things we’re doing-or are not doing?

There are times in this life when we simply cannot have the approval of God and the approval of man at the same time. When those times come, if our peace depends on the approval of people, the foundation of our peace is very fragile. More than one hundred and fifty times, these three words are found in the New Testament: “In His sight.” That concept must be very important to us all the way through this life. Because, when we all face the certainty of judgment, the way we have lived our lives “in His sight” will be the only thing that matters.

I once heard a law professor challenge his students to be sure to make their presentation to the judge and not to the crowded gallery. It will not be what the spectators think, but what the judge thinks that determines the fate of their client.

Can you see why Paul’s eleventh condition for peace is for us to learn to value the approval of God?

“Delight yourselves in the Lord; yes, find your joy in him at all times.” (Philippians 4:4)

“While pain and suffering are inevitable, misery is optional.” Those were the words of a man who lives every day with excruciating pain. How could misery be optional for someone in agonizing pain? And how do we explain Paul mentioning joy seventeen times in a short letter he wrote from prison to his favorite church?

Paul explains that for those who are experiencing a relationship with the risen, living Christ there is a peace and joy that is not controlled by circumstances. The peace and joy Paul experienced and prescribed could be called, “Peace that doesn’t make good sense” and “Happiness that doesn’t make good sense.” According to Paul, the foundation of that peace and joy is the Lord Himself. He therefore prescribed that we are to delight ourselves in the Lord and then find our peace and joy in Him at all times.

What is your foundation for serenity and joy? If your foundation is the relationship with a loved one, do you realize there is no relationship with people here in this life that cannot be removed? If that foundation is your health, your youth or your athleticism, many thousands of people, who had those foundations before age, an illness, or an injury destroyed them, will join me in warning you that they are very fragile foundations for the peace and happiness Paul is prescribing.

In the opening words of the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John we’re told that Jesus identified and declared the right foundation for us as knowing God and Jesus Christ Whom God sent into this world. Do you know them?

“…never forget the nearness of your Lord.”
(Philippians 4:5)

When Paul was experiencing his last horrible Roman imprisonment, visiting him was very dangerous. If you came to see him the Romans might chain you next to Paul. And nobody did. He writes: “They all forsook me. May God not lay it to their charge.” But he also wrote: “Nevertheless the Lord stood by me and ministered to me” (2 Timothy 4:16, 17). That is what he means when he prescribes: “Never forget the nearness of your Lord.”

This is why I am continuously emphasizing the ground rule that a personal relationship with the Lord is an absolute if you are serious about understanding and applying Paul’s prescription for maintaining the peace of God. If you would like to have a relationship with Christ, follow His directions. Our Lord prescribed:

“Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. For every one who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened” (Luke 11:9, 10 Amplified Bible).

Seeking is intense asking and knocking is intense seeking. If you cannot really relate to the concept of “the nearness of your Lord” give yourself to the pursuit of God as described by Jesus in the passage above.

There is comfort and peace to be found in a personal relationship with God. Millions have made that discovery. Join them and experience the peace of God maintained in your life.

“…have a reputation for gentleness…”
(Philippians 4:5)

When Paul writes of gentleness, he does not mean weakness, or milquetoast gentleness. The Greek word for gentleness here is actually the word meekness. Meekness is not weakness. Biblical meekness is closer in meaning to tameness. When a powerful stallion is broken, finally takes the bit, and yields to the control of the bridle and the rider, it is not weak. That powerful animal could be described as “strength under control.” That is what the biblical word “meek” means and that is the essence of this eighth condition for peace.

When Saul of Tarsus met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Jesus asked him “Why are you persecuting Me? It is so hard for you.” The original language actually means, “It is hard for you to pull against the bit. It is tearing up your mouth.” When Paul asked his great question, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” he took the bit and became meek. That is what he means when he exhorts us to be gentle.

Gentleness is also listed as one of the fruit or expressions of the Spirit. Another way of describing this concept is to call it “acceptance” or “unconditional surrender.” Paul teaches us by precept and by his example that we must accept the discipline of the will of God until we are so meek we experience this gentleness. Paul is prescribing that we accept God’s will for our lives. His prescription here is “Don’t pull against or fight the will of God.” The peace of God will sometimes return because we realize that God could have prevented our challenging circumstances.

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances may be.” (Philippians 4:11)

Paul prescribes patience as part of his prescription for peace. Throughout the history of the church, patience has always been considered a great virtue by the spiritual heavyweights. Why is patience such an important virtue? For starters, patience is one of the nine fruit of the Spirit we find listed in the fifth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. When the Holy Spirit lives in us, one of the ways He wants to express Himself through us is a supernatural quality of patience.

In the Bible we are continuously exhorted to “Wait on the Lord.” In our relationship with God we might call patience “faith waiting.” Nothing will test or grow our faith like waiting. When we think God is not responding to our prayers it may be that what He is doing in us while we are waiting – like growing in us the virtue of patience – is more important than what we’re waiting for.

In our relationships with people, patience could be called, “love waiting.” I have found that the Lord wants to grow two dimensions of patience in us: He wants to grow “vertical patience” in us by teaching us to have a faith that waits. And He is growing “horizontal patience” in us by teaching us that in relationships, love waits. Love is the first and primary virtue through which the Holy Spirit wants to express Himself through us.

While impatience is a “peace thief,” vertical and horizontal patience are supernatural, God-given virtues that can produce spiritual heavyweights – and maintain the peace of God in our experience of life.

“…in earnest and thankful prayer…”
(Philippians 4:6)

Observe that Paul prescribed, “… earnest and thankful prayer….” (Most of these scripture quotes are from the J.B. Phillips translation). My paraphrase of thankful prayer is “grateful worship.” I have a litany of thanksgiving that has evolved in my devotional life over the last thirty years of praying through Paul’s peace prescription while accepting the hard reality of increasing limitations.

When we’re thankful, we have automatically moved our minds from the negative to the positive. When suffering from a disability that is causing us to lose our faculties one by one, we have two choices: we can continuously think about what we’ve lost, or are losing, or we can think about what we still have and be thankful!

As I have experienced the gradual loss of my faculties, I have personally found that I get more mileage out of this condition for peace than any of Paul’s other conditions. I have so many blessings for which to be thankful. I discover regularly that when I begin to focus my blessings, the peace of God is in place. As I think of all the problems I have because nothing works from the neck down, mentally I put those challenges on one side of a scale of justice, while on the other side I place my blessings. I always find that my good stuff far outweighs my bad stuff – and the peace of God returns.

I am convinced that if you will put your problems on one side of a scale and your blessings on the other, you will find that your good stuff will outweigh your bad stuff – and the peace of God will be in place for you.

“…If you believe in goodness…”
(Philippians 4:8)

Paul does not mean to suggest that we should believe in the good we have done for our salvation but for the maintenance of the peace of God in our life. In His writings he emphatically stated that we are not saved by good works. He is focusing here a “peace thief” that haunts servants of the Lord who have laid down a lifetime of service in the work of the Lord. As a pastor I have visited with couples who had spent fifty years in China, in Vietnam, or in places like New Guinea and were living in charity housing. It seemed they had absolutely nothing to show for their faithful service.

There was a godly and dedicated medical missionary, named Dr. Helen Roseveare, who served for twenty years building a hospital in Africa. All her life she had the discipline of asking herself, “Is it worth it Helen?” She did this at every juncture in her life. In a Mau-Mau uprising she was raped repeatedly and then tied naked to a tree while her hospital went up in flames and burned to the ground.

While that was happening, the thought occurred to her “Was it worth it, Helen?” The Holy Spirit in her welled up with the answer “Yes it was worth it because He is worth it!” She knew for whom she was doing it all.

Paul is writing this fifth condition for peace to faithful servants like her. He was prescribing that they should not be robbed of their peace in this way. They should never doubt the worth of the good they have done for Christ.

“The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
(Philippians 4:9)

Paul’s fourth condition for the peace of God is simply to do all the right things. Does it mean there is something we can do to maintain the peace of God in our life? Oh there certainly is! In the verse quoted above Paul is writing to his favorite church when he prescribes, that if they will do all the things they have learned, believed, heard and seen modeled in his life, then the God of peace will be with them.

The author of the fourth psalm cannot sleep because if he does the right thing he doesn’t see how he can survive. His insomnia and anxiety are converted into peace when he resolves to make whatever sacrifices he has to make to do the right thing and then trust the Lord for survival.

Sometimes the “peace thief” that is robbing us of peace is that we don’t see how we will survive if we do the right thing. We are therefore, like most people, doing the expedient thing. When that is the case insomnia and anxiety could be converted into peace if we will resolve to make whatever sacrifices we must make to do the right thing and put our trust in the Lord for survival.

Next time you are not in a state of peace, resolve to offer those sacrifices of rightness, and you will find that the peace of God will come flooding back into your life.

“…think on these things…”

(Philippians 4:8)

Someone has said “Five percent of people think. Ten percent think they think and eighty five percent would rather die than think. And the ten percent who think they’re thinking are just rearranging their prejudices.” In Paul’s third condition for peace he challenges us to join the five percent and think. He also tells us specifically how to think. It’s as if our thoughts are sheep and we are the shepherd of our sheep thoughts.

Paul challenges us to think about things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and good news. We naturally seem to think about things that are not true, dishonorable, unjust, impure, ugly, and bad news. Among other things, Paul is teaching us here the mental discipline of positive thinking.

I’m amazed at how Paul’s prescription for peace agrees with the teaching of Jesus. Jesus taught us not to worry especially about the things we cannot control. He highly valued prayer in His own life and taught His disciples that men should always pray. He also taught that the difference between a life filled with light, or happiness and a life filled with darkness or unhappiness is how we see things. His greatest discourse was eight attitudes that can make us one of His solutions and answers in this world.

According to Paul, having and maintaining the state of peace known as “the peace of God” is largely a matter of what we worry about or pray and think about all day.

What do you think about? Do you have hardening of the attitudes? Join the devout minority and think your way to the peace of God.