Sunday Sermon: Shanti - A Lesson on Obtaining Peace Beyond Understanding Philippians 4:6-9 says: 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. I think next to healing, the number one prayer request we get from people is for peace. In today’s society with all of the pressures of work, home and friends and family life, somehow peace disappears. But God promises us a peace that is beyond our understanding. Even before He changes the circumstances that seem to be stealing our peace, He will give us peace. And that peace will protect our hearts and minds allowing us to patiently wait upon and trust the Lord through it all. 1. Pray Paul says, in Verse 6, “Tell God what you need.” Whatever is bothering us, we need to take it to the Lord in prayer. We do not need to be shy about bringing any troubling matter to Him, however great or small. If we are worried about it, God cares about it because He wants us to be at peace. Remember, Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:7, “He cares for you.” Tell God what you need. How do you want your situation to be? What changes would you like to see in your circumstances or in the circumstances of others? What do you want God to do? We may ask whatever we wish of God. But, it is important that we believe that God can grant our request. We must believe that God can answer our prayer in bringing-about that which we desire. 2. Give Thanks The second key to acquiring divine peace is also found in verse 6. Paul says “Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.” Too many times, when we are full of worry and fear, we fail to count our blessings. We fail to acknowledge how good God has been to us already. I love the stanza in Amazing Grace in which we remind ourselves - “Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. Tis grace that has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” We need to reflect upon how God has faithfully brought us to the present moment and thank Him for His past care. Think of the many dangers, toils and snares He has delivered us from and thank Him for it. 3. Dwell on the Positive The third key to peace of mind requires thinking, dwelling on the positive. Paul commands, in verse 8, “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.” I tend to believe that this is the key to our having peace of mind where we fail most. Too often we allow our minds to dwell on the negatives in our lives than on the positives. We are quite adept to seeing our glass as half empty rather than half full. 4. Obey God’s Word The last key to enjoying Divine peace of mind is striving to obey Jesus’ teachings. verse 9 says, “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.” I would strongly exhort each one of us to put thought and effort into applying these four keys to our daily lives. The God of peace wants us to enjoy His peace. youtu.be/4i429g-HGsc/
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 02:12:51 +0000
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