PEACE OF MIND
“Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Psalm 119:165).
Feel Stressed Out?
This world is a hectic place, bustling with the hubbub of frantic activity that constantly pulls at us. We can sure feel it sometimes.
It was Monday night just before the evening service of our Fall gospel meeting several years ago. Michaela, then age 4, was about to play her first soccer game. It should have been on America’s Funniest Home Videos. When the ball was put in play, a dozen little timid piranhas attacked the ball, which promptly went out of bounds. This didn’t stop anybody. There were kids falling down on top of each other, piling up around the ball, pushing and kicking. They kept attacking the ball, which squirted out of the pack of tiny soccer players and scooted onto the adjacent field. There another soccer game of little kids was in progress. Our game then briefly moved to this field in organized chaos, which eventually wound its way back to our field. Then, one kid ran into another kid, popping his head hard, and his mother ran onto the field to console his crying. What a game!
Where was Michaela during the fracas? About halfway through the brawl she ran off the field to find her Mommy. After promising her ice cream if she continued to play, she ran back onto the field with renewed resolve. After the game, when we had to hurry to church, Michaela was changing her clothes in the back seat. She exclaimed, after her first foray into team athletics at age 4, “I’m so stressed out!!” Hmm? Where did she learn to say this?
Finding Divine Peace of Mind
Divine peace is wholeness and harmony from being right with God. Despite what is going on outside of us and around us, the Bible promises truth lovers that we can find tranquility in the midst of turmoil. The power of God’s guiding Word can steady our nerves and strengthen our walk in the Lord. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2). Someone has said that a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t. Study and reflective thought on Scripture can keep us close to the Lord and create a peaceful haven in our soul. “For most men the world is centered in self, which is misery: to have one’s world centered in God is peace” (Donald Hankey).
What time is it when we’re all stressed out? It is time to pray! When anxious, Paul commends prayer and thanksgiving to God, so that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:67). Prayer helps us see things in the calm light of eternity. God’s calming peace keeps out distressing anxiety like an armed sentry. Whatever bothers us can be best handled by turning it over to the Lord. Whatever we can worry about, we can pray about..
To find peace of mind, Paul gives a list of shining virtues for us to fill our minds with in Philippians 4:8, things from Scripture that are “true…noble…just…pure…lovely…of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.” This is a scriptural prescription for the Christian’s mental health, prescribed by the Great Physician. I am in control of my attitude, regardless of my circumstances. Paul says if we imitate his apostolic example, “the God of peace will be with you” (v. 9). Paul says we can have the peace of God when we have peace with God, which comes from peace within ourselves. This happens when we have settled that question of eternity by obeying in faith the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1-2, 6:17). What a peaceful thought!
If we can help you find true peace of mind through Jesus Christ, please contact us. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).
W. Frank Walton