Philippians 4:7-8 (NLT)
“7 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. 8 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.”
One of the most challenging tasks for many of believers living in these modern times is to train our minds to think only Godly thoughts. This is God’s commandment to us, and one of the reasons that it is so important has a lot to do with the impact of our thoughts on our lives. Thinking thoughts that are negative, self-defeating, and corrupt can cause our lives to spiral downward into a very dark place. If we fix our thoughts on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise, our lives will take on the tone of these wonderful attributes and we will please God. He wants us to have good health, well-being and an existence that is full of His peace. We can switch gears and get on this path by changing the way we think and this will add to our faith.
In Leviticus 26:6(NLT), our Heavenly Father told His people living during Old Testament times that if they obeyed His commandments and followed His decrees, He would bless them. He said, “I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land.” God promised them peace in the land, and if we consider the times in which we are now living, we can’t help but appreciate how monumentally important His peace is.
1Corinthians 14:33(NLT) says, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people.” God is not the author of confusion and chaos. He loves peace and through Jesus Christ, He has made His peace available to us. He wants us to enjoy it in our relationship with Him, and in our relationship with others as well. In Hebrews 12:14, God commands us to strive for peace with everyone. And Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:9(NLT), “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.” As God’s children of light, we’re supposed to be peacemakers and peace lovers. Our fellowship with our Heavenly Father through Christ should be so tight that we bask in His peace continually, and we shouldn’t allow anyone or anything to take us out of His peace.
It is available for us to live this way. If we renew our minds to the wisdom of Philippians 4:7-8 and make thinking about the scriptures and meditating on them a daily practice, we will find that staying in God’s peace comes very natural to us. The psalmist said in Psalm 4:8(NLT), “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe.” This is the kind of peace we can have when we honor God and obey His Word, and we can experience it continually. Another wonderfully blessed reality is that as we obtain greater understanding and knowledge of God’s Word, our peace is multiplied. So, let’s be committed to turn our thoughts to God’s truth. It is pure, excellent, honorable, and right, and when we focus our minds and hearts on it, our Heavenly Father promises that we can experience the fullness of His peace and rest in it every day.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Experience God’s Peace”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and KLizzie for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.