Our key verse today shows that Jesus understood these truths all too well. Working backwards in the verse Jesus summarizes the root of lacking peace. It is when our heart is either troubled or afraid. Somewhere in our heart there is unrest. Look at what God teaches us about our heart:
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. -- Proverbs 4: 23 (NLT)
It determines the course of your life! It certainly determined the course of Whitney's. It certainly determines ours as well. But God has given us specific teachings about both troubles and fears. First as to troubles:
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." -- John 16: 33 (NIV)
There is that word peace again! Jesus lets us know that trouble is unavoidable in this world. But that our hearts do not have to be troubled because He has overcome the world! He is telling us these things specifically so that we can have peace, shalom, wholeness, and completeness. And now onto fear:
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 4: 6-7 (NLT)
There is that word peace again -- twice! His peace is beyond anything we can even understand beloved. And what does it guard for us? Our hearts and minds, harkening back to the verse from Proverbs above. Thank God today for His Word is always confirming itself! And what are the two conditions here that Paul writes about in order to attain the peace we so desperately need? We need to have a dependent and grateful heart. Telling God what you need means you acknowledge that you are dependent upon Him. You cannot find your peace yourself. It can only be found through Him. You cannot find it in the world and the lies that it sells you. It doesn't matter how much money, fame or fortune you might find -- it will not bring you the peace you seek. When you thank Him for everything He has already done you acknowledge everything that is right in your life instead of focusing on what the enemy wants you to think you lack. Think about that for a minute. The grateful heart reflects to everything God has already done. It reinforces everything that is good in your life. That runs counter to the world. The world has us look at everything we think we lack. It is unappreciative. Within that lack of appreciation is the lack of peace. But by approaching God with our total dependency and a grateful heart, we sow the seeds of peace in ourselves.
Continuing through the verse we see that Jesus Himself recognizes the vast difference between what the world considers peace and what God considers peace! NOT as the world gives do I give it to you! The world will sell you peace in a bottle. The world will sell you peace in a pill. The world will sell you peace in divorce over reconciliation. It will sell you marital abuse as love. Jesus is saying to us here -- don't buy it! Whatever the world is selling you -- don't buy it! Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the true embodiment of Shalom. Jesus is the missing piece that brings peace. He is what completes us. He is what makes us whole. Most of the world's solutions attack the symptoms and in the process create more symptoms! God prefers to cut to the heart of the problem and resolve it there. In 2009, Whitney recalls her mother's words in an interview:
"I am not losing you to the world. I'm not losing you to Satan. I want my daughter back. I want to see the child I raised, and you weren't raised like this."
But the saddest of all tragedies this week is that we did lose her to the world. We did lose her to Satan. That is not speaking to the state of her salvation only the fact that she is dead at 48 and should not be. I know that it is sometimes chic in the modern church to downplay the enemy to our souls but we do so at our own peril. He doesn't downplay us. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't take a vacation. The Bible says we should not be ignorant of his devices or schemes. Schemes such as selling us peace in a prescription. Schemes such as selling us love as abuse. Schemes such as selling us Shalom as being temporary and dependent upon ANYTHING other than Jesus Christ.
Lastly, from the key verse we see Jesus assuring us that He has in fact already left us this great gift. Not only has He left us peace but He has left us HIS peace. My God think about that for a minute! We do not need the peace the world sells us because we have been given the peace of God Himself! But why then is it so difficult? Why then can so many of us feel as if we lack the peace that Jesus has already promised and given to us?
Because we fail to walk in it. We fail to seek it. We fail to pursue it. We live in the world and we react to the world. We see the solutions it offers and we accept them too readily. We might lose the fight in the bathtub at age 48 but the downward spiral starts with seeking the cocaine at age 28. It starts when we feel that lack of wholeness in our lives and we seek to fill it with the things this world offers us. It starts when we feel that lack of completeness in our lives and we pursue our completion on the altar the world offers up to us. The altar of fame and fortune. The altar of greed and success. The altar of compromise to what we already know as the truth. And we make our sacrifices upon that altar and the fruit of it comes borne 20 years later. Twenty years removed from the Grammy-winning life. Twenty years removed from buying what the world was selling. So what is the magic answer? What is the secret to avoiding that altar and walking in the peace that God intended for us? The Prophet Isaiah teaches us:
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! -- Isaiah 26: 3 (NLT)
I am not suggesting these things are easy beloved. The choices that determine the course of our lives seldom are. They are seldom routine. But when the enemy presents you with the answer of cocaine to complete you -- you must trust God. When the enemy presents you with peace at the bottom of a bottle -- you must keep your thoughts fixed on God. There is a war going on beloved and like it or not -- you are a combatant. You will hear the lies of the enemy and you will have to make a choice. A final Word from God about the peace we all seek and desire -- His Shalom:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. -- Philippians 4: 8-9 (NLT)
