Green Pastures
Weekly Devotional

Pathway to Peace

 

Did you know that even when you don’t always get what you want, and even when you are treading water to keep from drowning in the sea of sorrow, you can still have a attitude of rejoicing? True – just ask the apostle Paul. Because whatever you do have, or are going through, it is because it was given to you, or allowed into your life by God for His purpose,  I know some of you are raising your eyebrows in disbelief; you are thinking of all the hard times and the grief you’ve experienced

and aren’t sure you can accept those words as truth.

 

The book of Philippians is about rejoicing and fulfilling God’s purpose, even in the midst of life’s devastating times. The apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, knew this firsthand and had learned how to praise God even in a Roman prison, under the watchful eyes of prison guards.  Paul had been imprisoned for preaching the gospel and still he rejoiced. He was at peace about his situation and could see how God was using it to further the cause of the gospel.

Let me encourage you to read the book of Philippians – the “joy despite” book.

 

I admit that I sometimes have difficulty emulating Paul’s attitude of rejoicing when life hands me the pits instead of the cherries of life. So, I find my “go to” place in the bible and remind myself of what God is saying to me through Paul.

As much as I do not usually like formulas (they remind me of the high school lab), I want to put one out to you.  As I read through chapter 4 some time ago, I realized that Paul had formulated one for us. 

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“ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. THEN you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”  (Philippians 4:6-9)

 

As we read through this, we can see the pathway to peace that Paul has laid out for us. As a prelude he says we are not to worry. Right. Easy to say.  But for Paul, who was chained to prison guards almost constantly, and considering all the hardships he had endured in his life because of his zeal in proclaiming the gospel message, he had earned the right to say this. His alternative to worry?

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 1) pray about everything that is causing you to worry. O.K, that makes sense. Next step?

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 2) Tell God what you need. Then, perhaps strangest of all, especially if you are in mid crisis, Paul says we should…

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 3) thank God for all that He has done for you through your life.  If you follow those steps, we are told

      THEN we will find peace. 

But he isn’t quite finished.   Those steps will usually grant us a measure of peace in the moment, but what about the next time those problems rear their ugly heads? And they will. So Paul in essence, puts a seal over what we’ve done so far according to this incomplete “formula”, He tells us that we need to.

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4) “fix our thoughts”  on the things that are God centered. In its original proper sense, the word “fix” does not mean to repair something. It means to make something steadfast. Immoveable. This pathway to peace is not meant to be just a quick review of the three points above. We are to dwell on, mull over and determine to keep focused on those things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.  How does that compare to your usual thought life?  If you are like me, we struggle with that.  There is only one thing that fills all those criteria – Jesus. If we follow through with that kind of thinking, we won’t have time to become occupied with the worry and depression that can cripple us and cause us to lose our joy in Christ.  It will have the effect of keeping us on the peace path. Paul finishes with encouraging the readers of his letter to remember and put into practice the things he has taught them and if they do, the God of peace would be with them.  Not just give them peace, but the promise is the presence of God would be with them.

 

We will not always be successful in sticking to the peace plan, often because we are impatient and also because Satan will continue to plague our minds with his schemes of getting us back to our habits of worry and fear,not trusting God -  two of his go-to tactics to defeat us.  If you are caught in his worry web, go back to the beginning of the formula. Don’t give up.  The peace plan is God’s word to us, through Paul.   Obedience will bring the results in God’s time. While you wait, do what Paul did while in prison  PRAISE GOD ANYWAY! That isn’t an emotion; it is an act of the will.

 

1)Rejoice   2) Ask   3) Leave it with Him   4) Meditate on the goodness of God

 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

 

B. Klassen                                beatrice.klassen@outlook.com