How is Your Peace?

Taught by Arlene S.
Notes by Linda G.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:6-7a, emphasis added)

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14, emphasis added)

The above two verses are probably familiar to all of us. We hear them often this time of year. Arlene reminded us that the first verse from Isaiah is a prophecy about the coming Messiah. The second verse is the New Testament fulfillment of this prophecy. Both of these verses speak of peace. Peace is something that the Lord wants us to have.

She broke ‘peace’ down into two types: spiritual peace and circumstantial peace. In John 14:27 Jesus says, “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”. The peace that Jesus is speaking of, that He wants us to have, is spiritual peace. Peace that transcends worldly circumstances.

Within the category of spiritual peace Arlene showed us that biblically there is something called ‘positional peace’ and something called ‘experiential peace’.

POSITIONAL PEACE

Arlene brought us through a series of scriptures that point to the fact that we do have peace with God. It is the peace that we have when we come to God.

“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!” (Romans 5:10, emphasis added)

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6, emphasis added)

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”. (Eph 2:8, emphasis added)

The emphasis on the above verses is on what God has done for us. We are not saved by the law. Even in the Old Testament this was true. “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about-but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."” (Romans 4:6-7). Abraham looked ahead to the fulfillment to God’s promises. We, as new Testament believers, look back to the cross. Arlene emphasized that God’s love for us is ‘furious’, despite the fact that we are sinners. Through Christ’s death we are restored to relationship with the father. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)

EXPERIENTIAL PEACE

Arlene explained that because we do have positional peace with God we should be able to have experiential peace in our lives. (I am sure that I am not alone in saying that peace is not always a reality in my life.) Arlene asked us “Why are we moved? Why are we anxious? Why no peace? What is blocking it?”. She went back to the verse from the beginning of the study “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). Arlene emphasized the word ‘government’ in this verse. What we are governed by is what we are ruled by. The more peace we want in our lives, the more we must allow God to rule in our lives.

The following is a list of the things that we may be allowing to rule in our lives. Something that Arlene stressed is that Satan absolutely wants to keep us from allowing Christ to rule our lives. We need to be vigilant to overcome the ways in which he will keep us from walking in God’s peace.

Other people/our culture: Paul states this very clearly: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”(Gal 1:10) Arlene also pointed to another scripture where Paul describes a situation where a fellow servant of Christ did not do as Paul wanted. “Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity”. (1 Cor 16:12) It seems Paul could take ‘no’ for an answer. Arlene pointed out that it is ok for us to say ‘no’ as well. (Personally, I would follow this up with we should be able to accept ‘no’ as an answer. Amen?)

Circumstances: We may allow bad circumstances to rule us (i.e. our past, a troubled marriage, shaky finances, health issues)

Self-imposed rule: Arlene pointed out that unknowingly we can allow our own hidden faults to rule us. “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.”(Psalm 19:12) The following are unintentional sins that could be ruling us. Not only do they affect our own lives but also the lives of those around us.

Perfectionism: This could rule us as well. To read more about this, see Arlene’s devotional entitled “Perfect Pursuit”. mwcwbstudy.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-pursuit.html Arlene told us that we need to ‘accept acceptance’. In this world we will never be perfect but God rejoices as we try to please Him.

Insecurities: Our insecurities also can rule over us. As Arlene mentioned, not only do our insecurities hurt us but they also hurt others. Especially in our role as mothers this can happen. Our children are greatly influenced by us and as we respond to situations out of something like insecurity or having a victim mentality, this is what they will learn. We want to model Christ’s rule in our lives for the health of our families. Arlene showed us the nature of the Proverbs 31 Woman, “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. “(Proverbs 31-25) Like the Proverbs 31 Woman, we too can be women of valor, one who is confident with the heart and spirit of a warrior.

Self-protection: Many of us keep our heart guarded because we have been greatly wounded in the past. The Lord wants us to be able to love generously, lavishly, and sincerely. As Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.“ It is hard to trust the Lord with our heart, but it is the best place to be.

Negative emotions: Some of the negative emotions that can rule us are: jealousy, envy, malice, depression, bitterness, anger & criticalness. These emotions can cause us to avoid people because we know that they can bring these emotions out in a powerful way. Arlene encouraged us to pour out our hearts to the Father. He can bring healing.

Guilt: This is not the kind of guilt that makes us do something but the kind that keeps us from doing something. This is what Satan uses to keep us from walking in obedience to the Lord. Satan will tell us we are not worthy to serve God. We must choose to believe what the Lord says about us and listen to His voice.

Need for significance: Arlene mentioned how we can be motivated out of a need to show that we are significant to others. For example, we may decide to meet a need of another family while our own family is in need of that very thing. We need to hold on to the praises and criticisms of men lightly. What the Lord has to say to us, about us, is what really counts. (As a side note, this isn’t to say that a word of encouragement to another is not a blessing!)

Acceptance: The need for acceptance is also something that can rule us. We want to be part of the group.

Fear of failure: Arlene showed us that the fear of failure will keep us from God’s best. Sometimes we will not walk in obedience because we are ruled by the fear that we will not succeed.

Co-dependence: Again, as mothers this can keep us from walking in God’s peace. We allow other people’s happiness to rule our sound decisions. We feel that to guard our own happiness we need to keep those around us happy, especially our kids. Arlene stressed that we are not responsible to keep our kids happy. Our dependency needs to be on the Lord – not on the relationships that surround us.

Arlene showed us how all the above things will keep us from walking is Jesus’ experiential peace. This peace can be a reality in our lives. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”(Isaiah 26:3) God’s rule is good and right and pure. We need to die (or surrender) to what we want instead we need to cling to the Lord if we want to experience this peace. We want to be attached to Him. The more we are able to do this the more peace we will have. Trusting God is the key.

Something else Arlene pointed out, it is easy to allow God to rule when we understand but when we don’t understand the circumstances of our lives, peace can flee. The story of Job is a good example of this. In the Old Testament adverse circumstances were often the direct result of sin. Job’s friends all admonished him to admit his sin in order to restore the favor of the Lord. Job did all that he knew to do yet his circumstances did not change. He said “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.(Job 13:15)

In Job 38, God responds to Job’s plea for understanding. “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) God then describes the wonders of the physical world He has created. His point is that if man cannot understand God’s power to create and sustain the things that we can see and we can accept it, why can’t we trust Him with the things that are going on in our lives that we don’t understand? In other words, we don’t know how God created the world but we accept that He did then why can’t we trust Him with the things going on in our lives that we don’t understand. Arlene illustrated that she doesn’t know how a plane flies in the air but she travels on them. How much more can we trust God?

In conclusion, Arlene asked us, “Do you have peace in my life? Who is ruling?”. Is it another person, your circumstances or some hidden fault? God desires for us to live in His peace. The more we allow Him to rule or govern our lives the more we will experience His peace. Although while we are on earth, we will never fully walk in complete peace we can have more than many of us are experiencing. Let the following verse be a prayer in this quest:

“Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. Lord, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor.” (Isaiah 26:12-13)