How to grow Peace

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7)

We are promised peace a lot in the Bible, but are we told how to get it?

Yes.  Have a look at this verse, and see if you can spot the important word here…

…AND

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This verse is not just a promise of peace, but shows us that the verses that come before it must give some clue as to how to grow peace.  It is a promise that if we do what comes before, we will have peace.

So I guess we better look at this passage a little closer.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
(Philippians 4:4-9)

So what do we need to do?

• Set our mind on God.
• Read, prayer, meditate on his Word. 
• Focus our mind on Spiritual things.

If we do this, then the peace of God will be ours, and the God of peace will be with us every step of the way.

Peace with…

God’s peace, the fruit of the Spirit, is different from the world’s peace.  It involves more than the absence of conflict or fear, it involves three positive forms of Peace.

Peace with God.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:1-11

 

Peace with Man.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Ephesians 2:14-18

 

Peace with Self.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7

God’s Peace

God is all about peace.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Peace is a huge attribute of God, and our relationship with Him.

So what does it mean to have God’s Peace.

God is always at peace, because:

• He knows that the world is going according to His plan.
• He knows who is in control of everything.
• He knows who He is, and does not try to be something He is not.
• He knows that as bad as things appear, He is always close to His people.

Having the Spiritual Fruit of Peace requires us to have faith in the same thing.  To take on this certainty of God, and make it our own, through the prompting and promise of Holy Spirit

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

We are told that the peace we have when we are in the Spirit is not the World’s peace, which is dependant on circumstances; but God’s peace which is dependant on our faith, and doing what we are taught.  We are not told that we will not be troubled or afraid, we are told not to be troubled or afraid. 

God’s peace is not the world’s peace.

It is better, because nobody can take it away from us.

Peace is…

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, …
(Galatians 5:22)

What is peace?

We often think of peace in the negative sense.  For instance as being the absence of conflict, or not being in turmoil.

But the Bible talks about peace as being a positive thing.  It connect peace with spiritual fruit, and in fact the New Testament is full of promises of peace, yet also promises of conflict.  So we need to look at peace as being more than just quiet.  (Jesus told us we will face struggles and persecution, but he also told us he left us his peace.)

I think spiritual peace is closely connected to faith.  Without faith, we have no peace.  With no peace, our faith is meaningless.

Over the next few days we will look at this in more details.

How do we grow Joy?

We talked about the fact that fruit needs to be grown.  So how do we grow fruit of joy in our life?

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-19)

 

This is a fairly well known passage, and I would hazard an opinion that it is not only the instruction, but also the teaching on how to accomplish it.

Be joyful always? How?

By…

• Praying continually
• Giving thanks in all circumstance.

If we are faced with circumstances where joy is not our first response, then our first response needs to be to bring it to the Lord.
Then, we need to have faith that it is part of his plan for our lives, and give thanks.

It does not say we need to give thanks for all circumstance, but that we must give thanks to Him in all circumstance.

This is how we will know that it is God’s will.  And if it is God’s will, then we can have joy in that fact.

Fruit of the Spirit

Lent is not about giving things up, or taking on extra work for yourself.  Lent is about drawing closer to God.  It is about learning to live by the Spirit, and keeping in step with the Spirit.

So this year, for Lent, I thought I would focus on a famous passage of scripture: The Fruit of the Spirit.

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 
(Galatians 5:22-25)

 

We are told in scripture to be Holy, and to be perfect.

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
( 1 Peter 1:14-16)

 

We can not do this in our own strength.  So I think of the Fruit of the Spirit as being God’s attributes, that we can see in our own lives.  In essence growing the Fruit is done by putting on God’s love; God’s peace; God’s faithfulness and so on.  It is about learning to become more like Him. It can only be done by the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit.

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at what each of these Fruit mean, and how to show it in our lives.

Day 36 – Spirit living

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:24-25)

 

Sounds easy, right?  So why do we still have problems, and try to live by the old ways?

I think the problem is that the sinful nature, you know the one we crucified, well it has a tendency to get down off the cross while we’re not looking.  Or while we are.

So each day we need to focus on bringing it back to the cross, and leaving it there.  It might not stay, but each day we’ll leave a little more of it behind.

Take care today.