Seeking the path to peace? Got fear?
That is normal. You should be very scared.
If you’ve ever had an echocardiogram, and the tech let you watch the screen–that blood pump looks pretty flimsy. There is tiny electrical impulse keeping the blood flowing through the pumping of your heart.
You are one missed electrical impulse away from death.
Every day.
Looking for the path to peace? You will not find it in the robustness of your body.
Besides that, car accidents, cancer, strokes, plane crashes, trampoline accidents (yep, more people are killed jumping on one than all those shot by guns), choking, drowning, and plane crashes are out there.
Looking for the path to peace? You will not find it by looking around at life on earth in a skin-sack (that’d be our bodies).
Peace Beyond Understanding
The Bible, the Word of God, offers a peace that “surpasses all understanding.”
Don’t miss that…that’s huge!
Do understand that if you are living your life, and everything is going your way, and you feel at peace–that is not a peace that surpasses understanding.
In fact, that is a fully understandable peace. If life is going your way, peace could be the appropriate response.
Yet, to be honest, even that is not the way peace works, right?
For even when we have a rare moment when things are going well, there is this realization–and that realization knocks us right off the path of peace into the ditch of despair and fear.
The Other Shoe
So things are going good, and we have fear because we know it will not last.
We are waiting, as the old phrase says, “for the other shoe to drop.”
So do you want an entirely different, difficult, and yet enduring path to peace?
The secret is found in the words of the Apostle Paul:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:4-7, emphasis added)
Reading those words, do you see the basis of the peace that confounds and eludes us?
The Basis of True Peace
It is not a “psych up” strategy, where we just fire ourselves up mentally to be at peace. That could work briefly, but much like New Years resolutions–once the emotional energy is gone we will lose our peace.
It is not based on human reasoning. We spoke earlier of the certain uncertainty of life. It is dangerous to get out of bed in the morning. It is dangerous not to.
To be alive means to risk death.
To love someone means to risk pain.
To possess something means to risk losing something.
The basis to peace is that phrase The Lord is at hand.
At hand means he is near, very near. He is within our grasp.
In other words, we do not have to find the path to peace, we simply need to take God’s hand and walk with him as he leads us to peace.
Walk with God? How?
In fact, Jesus makes something really clear in his teaching which relates to this in a very real way:
Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:5)
Jesus says we have to dwell so close that we are intertwined. We become members one of another. Through our bond of love, we become one.
Is that an easy thing to do?
No.
Is it good?
Oh yes! It is the best.
I want to encourage you to grow in faith. Spend copious amounts of time in Scripture and understand your time with your Bible not as “reading” but as conversation. Seek to know our great God so well that you know what he would do in any circumstance.
Seek to know him so well that you recognize his presence in your life.
Prayerfully ask to grow in communion with Jesus to the point where his peace is yours. You confidence is based on his love for you and his presence in you.
Fear is Natural but…
Fear is natural but we are called to walk supernatural. We are called to “…comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If that were not enough (and it is more than enough), Paul continues with a blessing:
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. (Eph. 3:18-21)
The path to peace is a path walked by our indwelling in Christ, and his in us. This may seem mysterious, and it is.
Embrace the mystery, seek Christ!
Check out Episode 1: Who B U? at this link.
Or if you prefer the video version of Who B U?, click here!
For an in-depth plan of spiritual growth, get my book Superhero: Being Who God Says You Are.
If you need a concentrated plan for defeating fear in your life, get Freefall: God’s Path to Courage and Boldness.
(Image by GeorgePeters/Istockphoto)
Be Very Afraid-Path to Peace Intro
Posted: January 27, 2025 by Stephen K. Moore · Leave a Comment
Seeking the path to peace? Got fear?
That is normal. You should be very scared.
If you’ve ever had an echocardiogram, and the tech let you watch the screen–that blood pump looks pretty flimsy. There is tiny electrical impulse keeping the blood flowing through the pumping of your heart.
You are one missed electrical impulse away from death.
Every day.
Looking for the path to peace? You will not find it in the robustness of your body.
Besides that, car accidents, cancer, strokes, plane crashes, trampoline accidents (yep, more people are killed jumping on one than all those shot by guns), choking, drowning, and plane crashes are out there.
Looking for the path to peace? You will not find it by looking around at life on earth in a skin-sack (that’d be our bodies).
Peace Beyond Understanding
The Bible, the Word of God, offers a peace that “surpasses all understanding.”
Don’t miss that…that’s huge!
Do understand that if you are living your life, and everything is going your way, and you feel at peace–that is not a peace that surpasses understanding.
In fact, that is a fully understandable peace. If life is going your way, peace could be the appropriate response.
Yet, to be honest, even that is not the way peace works, right?
For even when we have a rare moment when things are going well, there is this realization–and that realization knocks us right off the path of peace into the ditch of despair and fear.
The Other Shoe
So things are going good, and we have fear because we know it will not last.
We are waiting, as the old phrase says, “for the other shoe to drop.”
So do you want an entirely different, difficult, and yet enduring path to peace?
The secret is found in the words of the Apostle Paul:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:4-7, emphasis added)
Reading those words, do you see the basis of the peace that confounds and eludes us?
The Basis of True Peace
It is not a “psych up” strategy, where we just fire ourselves up mentally to be at peace. That could work briefly, but much like New Years resolutions–once the emotional energy is gone we will lose our peace.
It is not based on human reasoning. We spoke earlier of the certain uncertainty of life. It is dangerous to get out of bed in the morning. It is dangerous not to.
To be alive means to risk death.
To love someone means to risk pain.
To possess something means to risk losing something.
The basis to peace is that phrase The Lord is at hand.
At hand means he is near, very near. He is within our grasp.
In other words, we do not have to find the path to peace, we simply need to take God’s hand and walk with him as he leads us to peace.
Walk with God? How?
In fact, Jesus makes something really clear in his teaching which relates to this in a very real way:
Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:5)
Jesus says we have to dwell so close that we are intertwined. We become members one of another. Through our bond of love, we become one.
Is that an easy thing to do?
No.
Is it good?
Oh yes! It is the best.
I want to encourage you to grow in faith. Spend copious amounts of time in Scripture and understand your time with your Bible not as “reading” but as conversation. Seek to know our great God so well that you know what he would do in any circumstance.
Seek to know him so well that you recognize his presence in your life.
Prayerfully ask to grow in communion with Jesus to the point where his peace is yours. You confidence is based on his love for you and his presence in you.
Fear is Natural but…
Fear is natural but we are called to walk supernatural. We are called to “…comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If that were not enough (and it is more than enough), Paul continues with a blessing:
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. (Eph. 3:18-21)
The path to peace is a path walked by our indwelling in Christ, and his in us. This may seem mysterious, and it is.
Embrace the mystery, seek Christ!
Check out Episode 1: Who B U? at this link.
Or if you prefer the video version of Who B U?, click here!
For an in-depth plan of spiritual growth, get my book Superhero: Being Who God Says You Are.
If you need a concentrated plan for defeating fear in your life, get Freefall: God’s Path to Courage and Boldness.
(Image by GeorgePeters/Istockphoto)
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