Living in the Peace of Christ

In today’s efficiency-driven culture, it can be difficult to live in the peace of Christ. We often find ourselves pulled in many directions with competing priorities, ultimately trying to please too many people. This impossible feat leaves us feeling like we are drowning in our to-do list and our lives have become defined by the word busy.

God’s Desire for Us

God desires for us to live in the peace of Christ. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “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.” Take a moment to really ponder this verse. First, it says we should not be anxious about anything. Anything! That is an extremely strong command and a seemingly impossible act.

Can you imagine what it would feel like if you never had another worry, never had a stressful moment, never experienced any fear in the world? This truly sounds too good to be true. If there was such a way of living, wouldn’t you want to know the secret?  

Thankfully, God is good and He has revealed the secret. He says, “In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Is that it? All I have to do is pray to God in every situation? This seems simple enough, but many of us know that we have a hard time doing this. Why? We forget that God is in control, so we don’t have to be.

Pursuing Peace in Prayer

Now that we know the secret, we need to practice being doers of the word and not just hearers. How can you start? Here’s a couple suggestions: for the rest of the day, set an alarm on your phone to commit the first 3 minutes of each hour to prayer and tell God what you are anxious about and how you are thankful to Him for His provisions. Try this for a few days and see if this habit becomes more natural and more of a pattern and comes more easily when other situations arise throughout your day. Just think how this practice will relieve your anxiety and fear.

Incomparable Peace

The outcome is that the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That is an incredible statement. Think about it for a moment. First, it says that the peace of God transcends all understanding! Can you imagine how that kind of peace may feel and how it may change the way you live? Maybe the word “busy” won’t define the way you feel anymore. When that happens, God is glorified because we are living in faith that Christ’s sacrifice is enough. Our minds are no longer captive to our circumstances but are made free. This freedom allows us to seek God, to obey Him, and to be used by Him.

My prayer for us is that we will see the incredible power that these simple verses have to alter our daily life and be faithful servants of Christ so that we may be effective in playing our role as ambassadors of reconciliation to the glory of God. Amen.