“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7
Last week my youngest son asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I replied, “world peace.” It is an answer I commonly give when asked what I “want” because I know that it is as unattainable. He smiled and said, “I gave you that last year and it didn’t work out to well.” We laughed. Then I will usually say, “What I want only God can give me.” My kids hate that. (Well, it’s not like I am hard to buy for….Hello?....CHOCOLATE! ......Anyway, back to “peace.”)
Peace is something that many people seek, and some long for, but few find it. Oh, they think they can attain it by works, but they can’t. They print the word on Christmas ornaments, and wrapping paper, but it is just a word that is associated with Christmas. Few people truly know what it is. Most would pay top dollar for it, if they thought they could buy it. Rest assured that if there was a way a store could market it, they would. Can you imagine a store advertisement that reads, “If you want peace you can buy it here? Only $9.99 for a limited time.” I am being silly, of course, but in today’s world people think they can buy and sell anything! Most think that true happiness and joy can be bought for a price, so why not peace?
Real peace only comes from God. If you are reading this and you have never accepted Christ as your Saviour, you will never know real peace or joy until you do. Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for your sin, dear soul, and He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to share real peace and joy with you but you must repent of your sin and ask His forgiveness before you will ever know this peace which I am about to speak of. Real peace and joy come only after salvation.
The world thinks peace means the absence of conflict, but they are wrong. If anyone wants to have peace with God or that comes from God, they must first do what God commands. In the beginning of Philippians chapter four, Paul is telling the church at Philippi to stand fast in the Lord, to help their fellow laborers in the Gospel, and to rejoice in the Lord always. Then he tells them to let their requests be made known unto God. Christians like to take verses like this and turn them into a “spiritual buffet” where we pick and choose what we want and leave the rest for others. For example, one might like the part about standing fast in the truth but he doesn’t want to be of the same mind in Christ. You will not find true peace in this kind of an attitude. God’s Word is for ALL of us and there is nothing in it that is not needed. He expects ALL his children to listen to ALL he says, and do ALL he commands. We should all stand fast. We should all help others. We should all be moderate. We should all be of the same mind in the Lord. We do these things because they are right. But when we do, peace and joy come to our heart whether we were looking for them or not.
God’s peace is not temporal like that which you would get from the world. The things of this world will work for a little while, but they will not actually make anything better. God changes things. God changes people. God makes all things NEW! He doesn’t save us and just expect us to take on the world by ourselves. He gives us the spiritual tools to fight the fleshly lusts that would cause us to go astray. These are the tools that will help “keep your hearts and minds.” Sin is everywhere, but so is God’s grace. It’s all in the attitude of our heart. We have to control what we think. (Phil.4:8) Everyday we see adultery, fornication, theft, and murder on television and in movies. No matter what the “hero” does he always comes out okay in the end. Real life is not like that. There are consequences for our sin, and it is never a happy ending. These consequences rob us of our peace and joy. Everyone that is a Christian can have peace, but it depends on US, and how we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you are lost, you NEED Christ as your Saviour in order to have peace. If you are a child of God, you NEED the Word of God as your constant guide. Peace and joy are REAL virtues that can only be found in Jesus Christ.
