Peace: Freedom from Anxiety

Intro

Raise your hand if you’ve been anxious in the last three months. What about the last three weeks? How about the last three days? 

Did your worry or anxiety solve the issue that was causing the anxiety? 

I was super worried when I was going into my last year of college. I had spent four years and soon to be five taking some of the hardest courses on a college campus and I was worried I wouldn’t be smart enough to get a job. I was worried the competition and the requirements from employers would be too much and college would have been a waste.  

Alot of you can relate to that feeling of being afraid of the unknown future, to having anxious thoughts about the things you can’t control. 

The first year of planting this church was anxiety inducing. I was worried about people showing up. I was worried about people leaving. I was worried about not being a good enough pastor.  

Where anxiety and worry exist, the peace of God is often absent.  

If you had to choose between a life with peace and a life without peace, the answer is obvious. But we often make the wrong choice. 

While it is easy to choose anxiety and worry over peace, the bible tells us that the presence of peace in our life is a mark of our submission to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in us.  

We’ll see today that we have to be people who are actively seeking the peace that is from God. We shouldn’t be okay and content with a heart and mind that is troubled and afraid of the unknowns of life.  

Imagine not being anxious when you are told the cancer is back. Or when it’s time to have your performance review? Or not knowing if you’ll get enough funding for your next project? 

Is it possible for that imagination to be a reality? God says yes.  

Today, we’re talking about peace. We’ll define it and say four things about peace from the scriptures.  

Peace in the scriptures is used in many different ways. The bible talks about peace when there is war, peace with God due to the forgiveness of our sins, peace as a form of greeting, and so on. But what we’re going to focus on today is the peace that the bible speaks most often about. The peace that we all struggle to experience. The peace of God in the midst of the unknown.  

Open your bible if you have it to Galatians 5:16-25. This is our foundational scripture for our series. We’ll read and ask for God’s blessing on the preaching of his word. 

What is Peace?

To help us understand peace we’ll look at three scriptures.  

The peace that we are focusing on today can be defined as the internal harmony between our emotions and our mind that is centered on God. It is when the storm is raging around us, but we have full confidence in God to care for us. 

Imagine a child playing on the edge of a balcony but you’re sitting there without concern or worry. There is an internal harmony between your emotions and your mind in relation to the child being on the edge because you have full confidence the net will keep her from falling over.  

Now imagine you freaking out even though the net is there. You’ll freak out if you don’t trust the net to do its job. I think that’s how some of us are when it comes to peace and God. We find it hard to experience because we are occupied more with the what ifs that with God. 

In all the times I’ve been anxious, it’s not because I was thinking too much about God. But rather I was overwhelmed by the what ifs of my situation.  

Peace Comes From Having Our Mind Dependent on God 

Here’s the first thing we’ll say about peace. It comes from having our mind dependent on God. Peace is hard to cultivate because it requires us to let go and trust someone outside of ourselves. Control is stripped from us, and it is placed on God.  

Flip your bible to Isaiah 26:3. It says “You (God) will keep (guard) the mind that is dependent (rests upon) on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.” 

Perfect peace? What is that? The word perfect actually isn’t in the text, it is simply a repetition of the word peace. It is an emphasis of what comes when a mind is dependent on God.  

It is like a parent that calls a child 3 times, and says, how many times did I call you? It is an emphasis on the trouble the child is in, and the parent wants to leave no doubt the child was called. 

The bible says God’s gift of peace is a certainty for the mind that is dependent of God.  

The word mind also is not present in the scripture. The Hebrew word for mind is “lev” and that’s not what we have. What we have in Isaiah 26:3 is a word that can mean inclinations. Essentially, the thoughts of the mind.  

It’s been said that you are what you believe. It’s why there’s a growth in the positive affirmation movement. It’s a reason that prosperity preachers tell us to speak things into existence because there is power in the things we choose to believe.  

But rather than in our hope in positive affirmations or in speaking things into existent, the bible says our thoughts and beliefs are to rest upon God. God gives peace to those whose thoughts and beliefs are controlled by their trust in God.  

To experience peace is to trust in God. To experience perpetual peace is to perpetually trust in God.  

Having our minds rest on God means we are resigned to the fact that God is in control and that we will be OK. That’s when we experience peace. 

And being OK is not only for when our circumstance works out as we want it, but it includes when it doesn’t. 

There were many times in our Modesta and I’s marriage, before we had Edem, where we wondered why God had not answered our prayer for a child. To fight the anxiety of what would happen if this prayer never got answered, we had to comfort each other over and over with the words, we will be OK. We had to remind ourselves that as long as we were in Christ, we will be OK even if we never have a child.  

It’s not easy stuff. But that’s what it looks like to actively pursue the peace of God.  

For the next three things we’ll say about peace, turn your bible to Philippians 4:6-7. It says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

Peace Is For All Moments 

Here’s the second thing we see about peace. It is for all the circumstance we find ourselves in. Notice the scripture doesn't say “don’t be anxious about somethings, or most things.” But “don’t be anxious, worried, afraid, troubled about anything.”  

This is where we want the Spirit to bring us through the work he is doing in us. We want him to make us people who are not anxious about anything no matter how uncertain and unknown. This is why peace is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Because on our own, we cannot trust in God at all times, on our own we cannot have our thoughts and mind dependent on God perpetually. We need the Spirit of God to help us.  

The peace that God has promised, the peace the Jesus said he freely gives in John 14 is for every circumstance we find ourselves in. We are to be in a constant state of peace. That’s God’s ideal for us. It sounds impossible. I know. But that is our goal. When we resist anxiety because our mind is resting on God, we get to experience peace.  

Peace Comes Through Prayer 

Here’s the third thing we see about peace. It comes through prayer. We can be anxious for nothing and have our minds dependent on God when in every circumstance we go to God in prayer. Because in prayer we get to focus on our situation in the presence of God as opposed to by ourselves.  

What if in every moment of uncertainty, the first thing we do is turn to God in prayer? 

Paul wrote that instead of being anxious, and isolated in our thoughts we should expose our needs to God. It is prayer that includes both petition and thanksgiving. We are praying, asking God for help but also thanking him for where he has already met our needs. It’s one thing to go to prayer asking only for what we need, but it is another to both ask and offer thanks. It allows us to remember that there is evidence to God coming through for us in the past and in the present.  

Notice the scripture doesn’t say we should pray and expect God to fix it. We pray trusting  

Transcends Understanding 

Here’s the fourth thing we about peace, it transcends all understanding. It means that God’s peace is beyond human comprehension. It means that when we experience the peace of God in our circumstances, others will be puzzled about our reaction, you might even be puzzled about your reaction.  

The instinctive expectation is to be overwhelmed by what we are going through, but when we are experiencing the peace of God, we are instead overwhelmed by God.  

When we resist anxiety and instead go to prayer, the peace of God will guard our hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. This is the same thing we read in Isaiah 26. When our mind is dependent on God, God will guard our mind in perfect peace.  

In a phrase, God has promised us his peace when we direct our mind toward him.  

I want to say a couple of caveats before we wrap up.  

Trusting in God does not mean we do nothing. It does not mean we take no action on our part. It means we do what we can and leave the results to his hand. I’m reminded of the serenity prayer that is attributed to the theologian Richard Neibuhr which says, “God grant me the peace to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference.” It is a prayer that acknowledges there is a role for God to play in our circumstance and there is a role for us.  

Peace comes when we accept what we can’t change and leave it in God’s but also move forward in God’s strength to change what we can.  

The second caveat is that pursuing the peace of God does not mean we reject medicine or fail to address the experiences and traumas that prevent us to trusting in God. Sometimes medication might be necessary to treat cases of severe anxiety. God can use ordinary means like medicine to help us. After all we take medicine for headaches, and stomach aches, and other aches. And sometimes the journey toward experiencing the peace of God is dealing with the works of Satan that prevents us from doing us. Traumas and sins that’s been committed against us sometimes must be addressed so our minds can be directed toward God without impediments. That means you might need to talk to a therapist, a pastor, or someone else who is wise.  

Conclusion 

As we wrap up, peace is when there is harmony between our emotions and mind that is centered on God. It comes when our thoughts are dependent on God, it is for all the circumstances we find ourselves in, it comes when we go to God in prayer for everything, and it transcends all understanding.  

Listen friends, I know it is hard to not be filled with worry and anxiety but that is not the life God wants for us. He has made his peace available to us and has given us his Holy Spirit to produce it within us. It is well documented that anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles are on the rise. There are many things fighting for our attention that bring about anxiety. It could be disappointment with politics, with the church, our achievements or lack of it, our fitness goals, or lack of it, our financial position, our relationships or something else. And what we want to do is take our attention and direct it toward God. 

Where are you feeling worried and anxious in your life today? What’s causing you to be afraid or has you concerned about the future? 

I want you to take a couple of minutes and lay it at the feet of Jesus again this afternoon. Close your eyes and ask God for the specific help that you need. Let him know how you are feeling about the situation. It’s okay to tell him you’ve been anxious and worried. It’s okay to tell him you’ve been wondering if he could really help or even if he wants to help. Tell him. He already knows. Ask him to help to trust him. Tell him you want peace that’s beyond understanding in this situation. Tell him you want your mind to rest on him. What is one thing you thank him for that he has already done. Tell him.  

End in prayer.