True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--New TestamentНамуна

The Letter to the Philippians: The Peace No One Understands

Some people think it’s their job to worry. The plane won’t get off the ground without their help. By the force of their worrying, they keep the tornado from their neighborhood. Worrying keeps things stable. (Ha!)

“To worry” means to strangle, and that’s what it does to our minds every day. To varying degrees, we all let our fears take over our thought life—which is why the Lord regularly addressed our fretful default. He said:

In Matthew 6, Don’t be anxious about your life (v.24) or about tomorrow (v. 35)

In John 14, Let not your heart be troubled.

And on the Sunday afternoon after the Lord died, the disciples gathered in the (triple-locked) room where they had eaten the last supper, and Jesus appeared among them and said . . .Peace.

Just imagine what kind of mess their minds were in. In this moment of such surprise and grace, Jesus wished them shalom—complete calm, inside and out—the kind of peace Philippians 4:6-7 talks about.

Don’t be anxious or worried. Instead, let your worries become prayers. Let God know what’s on your mind. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will settle you down. The peace of God that no one understands will run guard duty around your heart and your mind.

The true and beautiful thing is that Jesus cares about the things we think about at 3:43 am. This is the kind of Savior we have. In the scary dark of our swirling thought-life, He wants us to have shalom.

At the root of shalom is the hope of being whole and complete. Peace is just the easy way to describe it. Nothing is missing or broken. You are satisfied, living the life God intended for you.

Shalom is practical, too. If we’re hungry or stressed out, we can’t have shalom. Neither can we carry a grudge. We deny ourselves shalom when we long for something we can’t have or refuse ourselves what we actually need (like mercy or rest). We deny ourselves shalom when we sin and refuse to turn around.

We all want this shalom but no one completely understands it. Ultimately, the only place we find shalom is when we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He promises to keep us in complete shalom, when we depend on Him. (Isaiah 26:3)

Jesus is the God of the way things are supposed to be, where everything is working as He intended. He is the only one we can trust to make that happen. He is the promised Prince of Peace, who meets us in the dark at 3 a.m.

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