PEACE OF MIND

 

 

Peace of mind starts with peace with God:

·       Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1–2)

Unless we have peace with God, we retain our guilt and shame and spend away our lives trying to prove that we are a “somebody.” Peace of mind grows as we grow in our knowledge of His Word. It is a process and a necessary one:

·       For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:1-3)

While our assurance of the knowledge of God’s Word edifies us, false understandings will tear us down. Therefore, I want to survey several areas of confusion. To believe that once we are saved, we will not be tempted by evil will disappoint us. Instead, the conflict between our two natures – our redeemed spirit and unredeemed fleshly nature – will intensify:

·       For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (Galatians 5:17)

Our two natures are at war against one another (Romans 7:25). God leaves us with our unredeemed bodies to train and discipline us (Hebrews 12:5-11). This struggle causes us to despair of self and to learn to trust in the Lord alone (2 Corinthians 1:8-9; Psalm 62)

We used to be told that “Any believer who wasn’t experiencing the peace of God had not totally surrendered to Christ.” However, this is not true. Instead, so many verses warn us that we are called to suffer for Christ:

·       always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10–11)

However, even as we go through suffering, we can still have the peace of knowing that we are beloved by our Savior, and that we will be with Him in eternity.

Failure to understand the Word leads to all forms of confusion and conflict. Forgiveness is another source of confusion. We sin, confess our sins, but do not experience any relief. We therefore wrongly conclude that God hasn’t forgiven us. However, the Word doesn’t promise that we’ll have an experience:

·       If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8–9)

No experience mentioned here. Instead, we are told that we are forgiven when we confess our sins. It required a while for me to grow in assurance of this. However, as I meditated on His Word, I slowly became assured. I learned that the worst sinners had been forgiven and even richly blessed. Paul explained that he had been the worst sinner. He murdered Christians and even forced them to reject their Savior. However, he was forgiven and elevated to become the foremost evangelist:

·       The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15–16)

King Manasseh had been Judah’s worst king. However, after he had humbled himself before the Lord, he was forgiven and miraculously restored to his throne (2 Chronicles 33:13). As I grew in my understanding of the Word, I also grew in the understanding that God forgave me. He paid the ultimate price for me even when I was His enemy (Romans 5:8-10). Surely, He would maximize His “investment” by forgiving my sins! These realizations began to produce a lasting sense of gratefulness for what Jesus had done for me.

Also, I knew that I was supposed to love Jesus. However, for a long time, I didn’t experience much love for Him. Instead, I felt condemned because of my failure to love Him. However, the Scriptures do not require us to have a feeling of love for our Savior. Instead, we are to love Him by obeying His teachings:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (John 14:23–24)

However, over the years, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to Jesus through His
Word so that I would adore Him. Consequently, it is now a pleasure and a privilege to turn to Him in prayer.

Faith had also seemed unattainable for me. I could not prevent myself from doubting, but then I realized that Jesus’ disciples had the same problem. Therefore, they asked Jesus to increase their faith. He responded with two parables, both indicating that they were making the wrong request:

• So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6)

Faith was not about having enough faith. With even the smallest measure of faith, trees could be uprooted. Nor was faith about trying to generate enough feelings, which leads us into self-obsessions. Instead, it was about understanding. Jesus explained:

• “And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unworthy (NIV or “undeserving”) servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'" (Luke 17:7-10)

Faith is not fundamentally about having a certain feeling. Instead, faith is about understanding who God is and who we are. God owes us nothing, and we owe God everything. We are undeserving servants no matter how much we have sacrificed for Him. Instead, He wants us to understand that He wants to give us everything even though we deserve nothing (Romans 6:23).

I began to find so many examples of these twin truths. For example, the Bible shows us that even though so many of God’s children seem to lack faith, in the eyes of our gracious God, they were models of faith:

·       By faith they [the Israelites] passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

However, when we read the original account of this, it doesn’t seem to us that Israel had any faith at all. Instead, Israel had been rebelling against Moses and their God when they heard the Egyptian chariots approaching them:

·       Then they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?' For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." (Exodus 14:11-12)

Nevertheless, they knew that they couldn’t deliver themselves from the hands of the Egyptians, and so they availed themselves of God’s way of escape. I came to understand that so much of faith was a matter of despairing of ourselves and reaching out for the One hope available to us. Only later did this understanding become transformed into a love for my God.

There are many examples that show us that our feelings are merely a byproduct of meditating on the truth of God’s Word:

·       May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:2–4)

Blessing starts with truth and then blossoms into gratefulness.