After finishing Bible College, after being out of work, surviving on food stamps, odd jobs, and the generosity of others, finally a church in Rancho Cordova offered me a job as an assistant pastor. On the way home from that second interview Susie and I were silent for a long time. This was an open door, this was the kind of opportunity we had been praying for. Finally Susie asked me what I thought. “I have no peace about this,” I answered. “I don’t have any peace either,” was her reply draped in a look of gladness and relief. When we got home I called the pastor and told him we would not be coming. He asked me to think about it, but I told him we would not go against what we were not at peace with.Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things. 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 4:4-9 (NKJV)What is “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding/comprehension?” Is it a feeling? A difficult to describe inner disposition? An absence of worry? A state of mind? A conglomeration of all of the above? Maybe even more important, when can I trust inner peace? When or how can I be certain that the sense of peace I have is from God? How much room for self-deception is there in using a sense of inner peace to discern God’s will and make decisions? And why so many questions?Our sense of peace is influenced my many factors, such as: our values - it’s tough to be at peace with things and decisions that transgress our values; our culture (both larger and sub culture) – it impacts our values and our sense of what is and isn’t permissible; our conscience – it is shaped by both our values and culture as well as by a God-given inner sense of right and wrong; our experiences – they impact how we handle things, stress over things, deal with things; our attitude – it impacts our hopefulness, outlook, and so much more; our desires –we are prone to legitimize our desires regardless of whether they are godly or not. This means it is entirely possible to have a sense of peace and be far from experiencing “the peace of God.”If we want to rely on “the peace of God” in coping with life, discerning God’s will, and making godly decisions we need to take all of Philippians 4:4-9 into account, otherwise we will make feeling some kind of peace another way of self-directing our lives and decisions. Paul assumes some preconditions to experiencing and knowing “the peace of God”:
- A God/Christ-focused life in attitude, disposition, and behavior.
- An awareness of the presence and return of Christ.
- A commitment to life by faith not fear and worry.
- An ongoing practice of prayer, gratefulness, and reliance on God.
- A dedication to good and godly thought and speech (we talk about what we think about).
- A determination to follow the word of God and godly examples.
In the practice of the above we shift from simply wanting some kind of peace of mind to resting in God and evermore desiring only that which God is at peace with. It is then we can completely trust “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.”After I turned down the job and hung up the phone our lives did not get any easier. Things didn’t just get magically better, in fact in some respects they got worse, but as to that decision the peace of God has never left us to this day.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans