Friday, October 9, 2009

Peace Beyond Understanding

Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 [HCSB]


There is a peace with the understanding, and there is a peace that goes beyond the understanding and finds its warrant in personal trust and love. The peace within the understanding is the result of a clearly perceived proportion between need and supply, between danger and precaution. "I have seen what peril is likely to occur, and I have guarded against it; I have found out all the weak points in my house where the fire or the hurricane might smite it, and I have strengthened and secured them; therefore I may dismiss my anxieties and sit down at rest."


The peace which goes beyond the understanding says: "I have done all this as well as I knew how, but there are regions of danger which I cannot explore, there are perilous forces which I cannot measure. The universe is large, and out of any distant corner of it there may come a sudden blow striking right out of my life. Beyond what I can provide for, then, I find out Him who is in all the universe, and, loving Him, I trust myself upon His love. It is not knowledge, now, of what will come or how it will be met; it is only the sympathetic apprehension of His love and care who is all-strong, all-wise. This is what I rest upon. This is the confidence in which I sleep by night and work by day."


Follow Christ... and He will lead you certainly to God and to "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." (Phillip Brooks, The Law of Growth and Other Sermons)
Spirit Filled Life Daily Devotional Bible, (Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1993.

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