"Peace" that transcends all understanding!

VERSE: And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:17

Peace is something everyone desires with no exceptions. For some peace means going for a holiday to escape the torment at their workplace or college and for others it is peace in war like conflict.

The Bible promises a peace that passes all understanding. When I read this for the first time I was awestruck. What is this peace that passeth all understanding?

Peace is not about positive energy or positive thinking. It comes from knowing that God is in control of our lives. This requires us to acknowledge and believe and put our faith in the Lord. Keeping that in mind, Paul says in Phil 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God". There can be days and moments in our lives which can be really hard to face but putting our faith in the Lord and giving him full control of our lives makes all the difference. Let the Lord know what is troubling you and He can really change things around for you in your life!

THOUGHT: Do you have the peace that passes all understanding?

And so we press on…

VERSES: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Phil. 3:12-14, New King James Version)

The name January comes from the name of the Roman God ‘Janus’. It is usually seen with two faces. One looks forward, the other behind. This month is indeed a salient juncture for all of us, being the first month of the New Year. Even as we all rush back to the daily grind of routine work in a couple of days, we may still have some time to reflect on the past and prepare for the future.

A quick reflection on our past may reveal several victories, but also a number of failures. Many of these failures maybe due to broken resolutions from New Year’s Day last year -if we still remember what they were! In the verse we see Paul, the master church-planter apostle for Christ, contributor of 13 of the 66 books of the Bible, admitting that he was not perfect.

‘Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ (Matt 5:48, NKJV). If one would read the verses preceding this, we see Jesus prescribing principles that are extremely hard to practice. ‘Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you’ among many others. Even as we look back on our past, we would find that at some point we would have struggled with conforming to these principles, or many other things mentioned in the Word required from us as believers. It is sometimes difficult to face the fact that we, although having being saved from eternal punishment, are imperfect people in the service of a perfect God. But isn’t it this sense of inadequacy – a sense of ‘not having apprehended’ – that can drive us to serve God even more, in a better way?

What is our vision for 2010? Philip Cherian, Director of Formations World Wide, (http://www.formationsworld.com/about.htm) once talked about the concept of vision: ‘Foresight, with insight, based on hindsight.’ We can’t really have a good vision for the future, without some thoughtful reflection of our past – be it incidents, successes, failures or just experiences. Even so, how do we look to the future with hope? Can we be hopeful only if we have got everything all planned and figured out? But if we’ve got it all figured out, why hope?

‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’ (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV) We know the One in Whom we can find hope for the future and perpetual guidance:

For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death.

(Ps 48:18, NKJV)

May God bless us all with a prosperous New Year in Him.

THOUGHT: Whatever be our present situation, can we look back with gratitude and look forward with hope?