PEACE: With, From, Of

Posted by Jeff in Blog, Gospel, Reflections, TheologyJun 17th, 2009 | no responses

Prepositions are small words, but they carry great weight.

What we often call peace with God , is really just a subjective sense in the mind that all is calm. It is a kind of peace, but is it really having peace WITH GOD? To be at peace with God demands the removal the the enmity we by default live in. Not only are we indifferent, we are at war (Romans 8:7-9), and probably in more passive-aggressive ways than even play out on human and family levels. If insanity is defined at doing the same things over and over yet expecting different results, then we are functionally insane if our thinking is "Hey, I had a good day, things are running smoothly … God and I must be cool."

One huge problem with this is with all our change in feeling and attitude about the situation, the one Person whose perspective matters — God the Creator — has been left out. Real barriers exist between us and Him, and these must be overcome. The barriers must be removed, which means our sins (acts) must be forgiven AND our sinful bent reversed. We are guilty of both breaking God’s laws, but more than that: we break them because we are selfish, sinful people. We prefer anything and everything over God and His best. So God must not only remove the barriers of our sinful actions, He must conquer our "old man" and remake us as new people (Colossians 3:1-11).

Okay, that was deep. How about a change-up real quick? This came in my email (from something who "never" sends forwards, which I also hardly ever read):

"By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, ‘The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.’ So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished,and before the morning was over I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how good I feel right now."

That’s obviously a joke, but is that not how we think of true inner peace, and how so many seek it: by numbing ourselves from our real brokenness. It’s been noted that about 1 in 4 Americans are on tranquilizers of some kind — eradicating the natural alarms in our body that are there (pain!) to remind us that something is wrong. Some people would rather listen to

A short meditation for this morning:

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

With that in mind, we look at the previous couple verses:

" Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. " (Philippians 4:4-7)

I battle fear — a form of UNBELIEF — everyday, and must wage war in my mind and heart according to 2nd Corinthians 10:5, taking every though captive to the LORDSHIP and mind of Christ.

What an amazing dynamic to ENJOY (v. 4) God in the mundane details of life ("always"), to POUR OUR MY HEART to Him (v. 6), and to EXPERIENCE His peace. This peace is both an objective standing (having peace with God ), and subjective reality (peace from God , and here, the peace of God ). Startling to think we can enjoy the very peace God Himself enjoys. Wow. We can experience God’s peace daily because we live in God’s peace because of Jesus has unconditionally chosen and redeemed us.



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