(As you read the title of this article, you can think of someone making the corresponding gesture with their hands by their head, saying “poof”.)
Continuing in the same passage as the previous article, the result of presenting our requests to God is something that we might not expect.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
By replacing our tendency to be anxious with a choice to give our concerns over to God and trust Him, the peace of God guards our hearts and minds.
Now, I think that sometimes we seek the peace of God directly. This peace that “passeth all understanding” (KJV) is something that we want. However, this verse suggests that the peace of God isn’t just something that we get for ourselves. Instead, that peace guards us. A commentary [Ash, p.119] puts it this way, “More than the peace God gives, it is the peace which God is.” [emphasis in original]. We don’t just get a feeling of peace; we are guarded by the God of peace.
Remember that God is perfectly at peace within Himself. The three persons of God (i.e., Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) exist in perfect harmony and peace with each other. They have done so from an eternity before this world was created, and will do so for an eternity to come. So, unlike we humans whose minds, bodies, hearts, and souls experience conflict, God’s perfect unity and holiness precludes Him from having any of those problems.
And, for the Christian, what is anxiety except a conflict between our body and our soul? Our body – perhaps our sinful nature or “flesh” that hasn’t yet been replaced with our new eternal body, as described in Romans 8, for instance – still struggles with temptation and wanting to do what we shouldn’t do. On the other hand, our soul – which has been sealed by the Holy Spirit and is destined for an eternity with God – see Hebrews 10:13-14 – can have confidence in God’s faithfulness. So, we may worry that something will or won’t happen, thinking of all of the things that could go wrong, but in our hearts, we trust that God will take care of us. That’s a battle that most – if not all – of us deal with, I think.
As a result, the more that we yield to God, trust in Him, and seek His holiness, the less that we should expect to experience conflict (at least, conflict within ourselves), as we become more like God made us to be and as we replace those conflicts with a faith that is certain of who He is.
The footnote in the NASB suggests that the text may describe the peace of God as that “which surpasses all mind…” I would agree that the peace of God can indeed “blow your mind”!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for September 17, 2023
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press Commentary, Philippians Colossians & Philemon, by Anthony L. Ash. College Press Publishing Company, © 1994.
Those Who Sin Differently 