Peace

Anxiety and distress are often the result of our misplaced focus.  We are too easily discouraged by the duties and difficulties of life.  It is true that there are many things that require our attention but it is for this reason that we must be diligent to ground ourselves in the provision, promises and person of God.

The Lord, our God, wants for us to have peace.  Christ declared this Himself, “peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

He gives us His peace and commands us that we maintain that peace, even in the midst of stressful/anxiety causing circumstances.  “Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7).  This command, “be anxious for nothing” is supported by this directive “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  Do not remain in a continued state of anxiety, instead in every circumstance pray with thanksgiving to God.

Yes, pray and give your anxieties to the Lord.  But why “with thanksgiving?”  Elsewhere we are commanded “in everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  It is God’s will that we be thankful people.  That makes sense because God is good thus it is good for us to give Him thanks.  But it is more than that.  For when we give thank, when we make a discipline of giving thanks, we are forced to think on the goodness of God to us in the past.  And certainly as we are made to recall the goodness of God to us in the past we are encouraged as we face the uncertainties of tomorrow.  Thus God has built into His command “give thanks” one of the primary mechanisms of our encouragement in turbulent times.  Remember His provision.

Take time this week to try to list as many things as possible for which you may give thanks.  Review them together with your family or friends and give thanks for the goodness of the Lord.

Again, the Lord wants for us to have peace.  He gives us His peace and commands us to abide in His peace by remembering His provisions as we make supplication before Him.  Additionally we are reminded in 1 Peter 1:3 that we have been “born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.”  The world hopes in that which is passing.  The Christian hopes in that which is eternal.  We have a Savior whom death itself could not hold!  And this same Savior who promised that He would rise again, has secured for us an inheritance which is “imperishable, undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for us” (I Peter 1:4).  This is the manifold grace of God, not just that He has saved us in the past, but much more that He has promised future grace to us.  Thus Peter also says “…fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:13).  Fix your hope on that grace.  Set your affections on that grace.  Remember His promise.

Take time this week to talk with another believer (or unbeliever) of the hope that we have of future grace.  Encourage one another with these precious truths.

Finally as we were reminded through our Sermon on Sunday, “the nearness of God is our good.”  We need not fret when we see evildoers prosper.  We need not envy their prosperity.  Their prosperity is empty and fleeting.  As a vapor it will soon disappear.  And its place will be filled with the horror of the wrath of the Almighty God.  But not so for the believer.  The believer is made to know the goodness of the Lord in the present and has as His hope a greater experience of the goodness of God in the future.  Indeed we say joyfully with David, “the nearness of God is my good!”  Remember His person.

Stay close to the Lord this week.  Do whatever you must to make sure that your thoughts are ever with Him.

We are too easily discouraged by the difficulties and duties of life.  The Lord, our God desires for us to be a people filled with His peace.  To this end, we must be diligent to remind ourselves of His provision, His promise and of the goodness of His person.

I pray that the Lord would grant you His peace this week as you continue to labor for His glory!

“The steadfast mind you will keep in perfect peace because He trusts in you” Isaiah 26:3

When you’re brought low…

When you are upright, you tend to look around; you look before you, you look behind and also at your sides. However when you are low to the ground, you tend to look up. Everything is higher than you so you are really forced to look up. And being on your back really puts you in the position of needing to literally look up to the heavens.

Sounds like a strange introduction but it has context. I’ve been thinking about the nature of difficulty and distress in our lives. What is the point, what does it do for us? Clearly God has His purposes in sanctifying us. We all know that. But how does it sanctify us? Why is it necessary that we be brought low? Perhaps we know the reason. Perhaps we assent to the fact that God is working out something in our lives through our trials. Then why is it so difficult to rejoice in the midst of them? Sometimes, perhaps God is gracious and He gives us a particular grace that allows us to rejoice in seeing Him work through our trials. But that doesn’t always happen. And when it doesn’t happen, when we don’t feel the joy of our salvation as we ought, why? Shouldn’t our lives as Christians be characterized by joy? We should rejoice always! Joy is a fruit of the spirit.  Is there something wrong with us when we don’t feel joyful and happy as Christians?

Well, I don’t pretend to have all the answers to such questions but I do know this. Being brought low is not merely a matter of circumstance. Sometimes we have need to be humbled in our heart. Sometimes we grow accustomed to merriment and frivolousness. Sometimes our hearts grow accustomed to the feeling of happiness such that we crave it merely for the sensation of it.  Seeking joy as a Christian is not wrong.  Seeking the feeling of joy or happiness for its own sake is.  God, Christ and His Kingdom is who we are to seek, and all other things will be added to us.  But if we are seeking the feeling for its own sake, then we have lost sight of what is true.  And we have need of a reminder.

Thus if we are ever to be shaken out of our happiness induced high, we must be brought low. We must be brought to a place of weeping. We must be brought to a place of sorrow and destitution. When all is well we have no reason to look up. For we anticipate that what is around the corner will only serve to increase our happiness because we know God to be good. Except when we say that God is good, often it is in response to some good (that we perceive to be good) that we have received from Him. But the goodness of God is not limited to what we understand to be good. If it were then there would be no need for the word or concept of suffering. For God would only give that which is good in our minds to us. But there is suffering. And there is discipline that the Lord allows, brings about, causes (however you want to phrase it) in His Sovereignty in order to bring us low. Sometimes He deems it necessary and good to put us on our backs. For when we are brought to such a low estate we are forced to look up to Him. When you’re in the darkness, you look for light. When you’re in the intense heat of the Sun, you look for shade under which to take refuge. When you’re in the midst of a storm, you look for a stronghold, an anchor upon which to keep yourself from being shaken apart.

Fear not. Despair not at those times when God brings you low. Do not seek to stay in that place of weeping.  David said “weeping endures for a night…”  However, accept your low estate as a part of God’s wisdom in order to remind you to look, not to your troubles, not to relief, not even to the feeling of joy or happiness, but to Him.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”

1 Peter 5:5-7

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.”