A Different Kind of Peace

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Everything alright? Oh, I trust so. Look up and trust your blessed Savior to see you through the day and he will. Come with me to Colossians 3, we’re in 3:15, “Let the peace of God rule… ” That where it means be the referee, “In your hearts, to which also you’re called in one body. Be ye thankful.” We started yesterday’s thoughts with the idea that part of what God has called you to as a Christian, as a member of the Body of Christ, is that his perfect peace should be the atmosphere in which you live every moment. You’re called to this.

One of these days, we’ll take up the different truths having to do with the call of God. It’s a beautiful study. Right now look into this verse a little further with me. We talked about the peace of sins forgiven, we talked about the peace that Christ is Himself our peace, we talked about peace as being the essence of the Christian life, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, not things you do to appear pious, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, the essence of Christian living, is right living because of right connections with God by faith the peace of God is the atmosphere of your life and the joy of the Holy Spirit as the spillover of divine delight in your relationship with him. Anybody who is acquainted with our Lord closely is a person full of joy.

You find that in folk whose experience has recently included committing themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Oh, the joy there is. And sometimes we allow that joy to fade because we get routine and stale in our Christian experience. There’s a hymn that goes, “Where is the joy that once I knew when first I sought the Lord?” So on. Well, beloved, remember that the essence of your Christian life does involve the Lordship of Jesus Christ so that God’s righteousness is reckoned to you and revealed through you. It does include the blessed peace of God as the very atmosphere of your living. And it does include the spillover of divine joy, as the Holy Spirit works and speaks and breathes through your life. You say, “Well, I don’t have much joy brother Cook. Things are pretty tough with me.” You see joy doesn’t depend upon things. There’s a little British chorus that they used to sing years ago. “I’m happy when everything happens to please, but happiness comes and goes, but the heart that is stayed on Jesus, the Savior ever with joy ‘orflows. Happiness happens, but joy abides in the heart that is stayed on Jesus.” Oh, learn that. Learn that secret, beloved, the essence of your Christian life is the divine righteousness of Christ, the peace that God can give and the joy that spills over blessing others, all the time.

Now He says that the peace of God is the essence. That’s what we were saying now, what else? Well, of course, there’s God’s peace that keeps you from being upset, “Great peace have they that love thy law: And nothing shall offend them.” It’s really tough to be offended by something, isn’t it? You feel hurt, and sometimes those hurts last over decades and even a lifetime. You can, I’m sure, remember some things that happened even when you were a child that hurt you, and today you wince at the memory. Well, of course, the only way to get around those, those long-time hurts, is to face them honestly, number one, and then by faith, give them to Jesus. You face the hurt honestly, you don’t tuck it away in forgetfulness, you don’t try to ignore it, you don’t try to rationalize it or explain it, there it is, it happened, now what? Well, you give it to Jesus by faith and let Him handle it. Oh, this matter of the peace of God that heals the hurts is such a precious truth, “Great peace have they that love thy law: And nothing shall offend them.”

Have you realized that there is a connection between getting something precious from God’s Word every day, and the stability of your emotional life? There is a connection? Have you noticed that? You are more likely to be hurt and offended and wounded spiritually, or emotionally if you neglect to meet your Lord in His Word, day by day. Now, you try this for yourself. Anything I tell you I’ve been there. But you’ll have to try it for yourself, to know that it’s true. You get up a few minutes earlier in the morning. And spend some time with your Lord in His Word, and pray, and say, “Now Lord, speak to me through your Word, I want something on which I can chew and think about all day long.” The word meditate means chew it over. “In His law doth he thee meditate day and night.”

Well, you asked God for something you can chew on all day long. And you meet Him in His Word and you pray, back to Him, so to speak, those things that He has whispered to your heart until your eyes are wet and your heart is warm and tender I can guarantee you that there will be less of hurt and less of frustration and less of offense coming to you because of things and people because you have met your blessed Lord in the Word, the more you’re in the Word, the less you’ll be offended. Do you believe that? Well, if you don’t believe it, you simply have to try it for yourself, to find out that it is indeed true. The more you’re in the Word, the less you’ll be offended. “Great peace have they that love thy law: And nothing shall offend them.”

Well, then what else? He says, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” What else can we say about it? Well, there’s peace of course, through prayer, we’re all familiar with the Philippians 6-7, Don’t worry about anything, pray about everything. “Be care filled for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” That’s Philippians 4:6-7. The peace of God that passes all understanding comes as a result of committing things, everything that is, to God in prayer. In everything, he said, let… “Be careful…” be care-filled, that means worried for nothing, “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.” Is there anything about which you may not pray? The answer is no. You can pray about everything and should pray about everything.

Mrs. Barnes told me many years ago, she said, “When I finished my graduate work in the university, I was gonna be an expert in the pre-school child,” and then she said, “I fell in love and got married, and my own family began to come along,” and she said, “Many a time, Mr. Cook, I had to stop in the middle of the kitchen floor, look up and say, “Oh God, it isn’t in any of my books. What do I do now?” Ah sure. Oh, in everything, pray about your household tasks, pray about your business problems, pray about your personal affairs, pray about your decisions, buying and selling, hiring and firing or transferring, whatever, pray about them. In everything, by prayer and supplication. And then he adds, “With thanksgiving,” because that’s the faith hook. If you dare to believe God and thank Him for the answer before it arrives, that’s faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not yet seen.” You dare to thank God, He dares to trust you with His divine answer.

Pray about everything, and as a result, Paul says, “The peace that passes all understanding, it’s gonna fill your hearts. It’s gonna keep your heart.” That word, “Keep,” means, guard like a garrison of soldiers, that’s what that means in the original text, it’s gonna guard your heart like a garrison of soldiers, all around you. The fact is that life falls in on us unless we’re protected isn’t that true? The circumstances and the relationships of everyday life do tend to nick and wound and hurt us and so we do need to be kept, we need something to protect us from the onslaught of life itself. Life oftentimes is very cruel. So what do you do? You commit yourself moment by moment by moment to your blessed Lord. Pray your way through the day. I have often told my students, “Pray your way through the day, pray about everything, pray when you get up, pray before you answer the phone, pray before you make a decision, pray before you go to class, pray before you enter upon a conversation, pray before you answer a question or express an opinion. Pray before you sign a contract, pray before you go on a date, pray before you decide what job you’ll take or where you’ll live or whom you may marry or whatever.” Pray your way through the day, and when the day is over, you can turn out a pocket full of memories, and thank God that He’s been with you all day long, the peace of God has kept your heart and your mind.

Oh, incidentally, Paul uses two words there, and I would just take a little detour and remind you. I would remind you that he says, “Keep your hearts and minds.” There are two areas in which you and I need to be kept by God’s peace, one is our hearts that is to say our spiritual life. And the other is our minds, our mental machinery. Are you troubled with vague and wayward thoughts? Are there some thoughts that just pop into your mind unbidden and you’re ashamed to realize that they’re there? Learn to turn your mind over to the Lord Jesus. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, that we ought to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Learn by faith to turn your mind over to the Lord Jesus. You can’t avoid vagrant thoughts that pop into your mind. But like the birds, someone has said, you can’t avoid the birds flying over you, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. So turn your vagrant, those pop-in thoughts turn them over to your blessed Lord the moment they occur. God will keep your mind. Yes, He will. And He’ll also keep your heart, that is to say, the spiritual and emotional part of your nature. He’ll keep your heart right if you pray about things. He’ll keep your heart right if you pray about things.

Peace, the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And then, see the Lord Jesus gives us His own peace then, “Peace I leave with you, my peace give I unto you: Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27 is one of the 50 verses I learned in the Gospel of John before I was seven years old. My father told me he’d give me a gold watch if I would learn those 50 verses before I was seven. And that’s one of them. “Peace I leave with you, my peace give I unto you: Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” His peace.

You see there are different kinds of peace. There’s the uneasy peace that comes between nations when an armistice is signed. There’s the uneasy piece that comes between human beings when quarrels are temporarily settled. But there’s the perfect peace that Jesus gives because He himself stands between us and the irritations and the hurts and the wounds that come to us in life, He stands between us and them. Hallelujah for that.

So, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,” says Isaiah in 26:3 of his book, “Whose mind is stayed on thee.” Keep your mind on Jesus, and you’ll be surprised at your attitudes being changed toward things around you. Good idea. Now, the next time we get together, God willing, I wanna show you how this works in everyday living. Let the peace of God be the referee in your hearts. We’ll talk about that the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, may we be delighted with our experience of Thy divine peace in our hearts, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!