Hello everyone! My name is Ryan Weeter and today I’m going to be talking about peace. As I’ve ministered to people, something was brought to my attention by God. Too few Christians have peace. So many people that ask for prayer mention something about being stressed, being afraid, being anxious. They ask for peace, but then turn right around and start wallowing in their stress and circumstances again. It’s time that this is brought to an end.
The Bible says that Jesus is the prince of peace and of his peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). With peace being such a big aspect of who Jesus is why is it that so many of his followers are without peace? Why do Christians allow the devil to come in and steal their peace? Philippians 4:6-7 says “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.”
First and foremost, the scripture says “Be anxious for nothing…” That’s about as straightforward as you can get. Don’t be anxious! Don’t be stressed and fearful! The verse doesn’t say if you feel like it, it doesn’t say that either way is ok. No, don’t be anxious. Bottom line. Don’t do it. Now I know there are some of you reading this right now thinking “That’s easy for God to say, but I’m going through this!” Believe me, God knows, and he knew exactly what you were going to be attacked with when he said it.
The second thing in this verse is that it gives you a reason. You don’t need to be anxious because our requests are brought to God. The Lord God almighty, creator of the universe, alpha and omega. This is our God and this is who our requests are brought before. When you’re scared or anxious or stressed, you’re saying “God, I don’t think you can handle this.” Don’t be that person. You don’t need to be that person, our lives are so much easier than that. The only thing we have to do is believe in God. It’s not up to us to take care of things, it’s up to him, and he cannot fail.
The third thing that was shown to me in this verse is that the peace that comes from God is not situational. It surpasses all understanding, one version actually says it surpasses all power of thought. No matter how bad you think it is, no matter how helpless you think the matter may be, it doesn’t matter. God’s peace surpasses all of that. It doesn’t matter what mental battle the devil may try to launch. It doesn’t matter what mental battle you yourself may try to launch, God’s peace is superior. Paul experienced more hardships than most people on this planet will ever experience and yet he counted them all light afflictions. Paul had God’s peace and it definitely surpassed all power of thought.
The final bit of this verse is one that I overlooked for so long, yet it’s so impactful. His peace guards our hearts and minds. His peace is a wall against these circumstances. God’s peace is so overwhelmingly powerful that it doesn’t just calm the storm, it prevents the storm from even roaring against you. It prevents the punch thrown at your heart and mind from even landing. That’s not to say that circumstances won’t attack you, but they won’t affect you. Matthew 14:29-31 is the story of Peter walking on the water. We see the storm raging about him, the storm trying to sink him, but it could not affect him as long as he kept his eyes on the Prince of Peace. As soon as he took his eyes off the Prince of Peace and focused on the circumstances he sank. Don’t focus on the circumstances.
We are Christians, we are followers of peace. I would recommend you read through the Bible and look at all the verses that talk about peace, protection, and freedom. We should be the most peace filled people on the planet. Yet, peace is not what you immediately think of when you think of Christians. We should be so full of peace that it overflows and gets on others. We should be attracting others with our peace instead of driving others away with our fear. I encourage you to get in the word, press into his peace, and live the life God intended for you. Be blessed!