Starting Your Day With GodSample

Morning Topic: God’s Peace

Yesterday, we soaked up God’s love. We remembered that it doesn’t change, and it will never fail us. This is true about more than just His love, though.

Today, I want to remind you of the peace He offers you. In John 14, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit who would come dwell within His followers when Jesus went to the Father. Toward the end of the chapter (the part you should have read right before this), He says He’s leaving a gift: peace of mind and heart.

At first glance, these don’t seem connected, but it seems like Paul put it together when he wrote to the Galatians. Jesus’ promised peace is a sign or result of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. He didn’t just promise us peace, but He promised the Holy Spirit who would be our peace regardless of the circumstances around us.

So why do Christians still feel inner turmoil? If we have the Spirit within us, why do we still feel anxious or afraid? I won’t claim to have the perfect answer for this, but I do have a couple of ideas of first steps to remedy the situation.

Philippians 4 lays out what seems like a six-step plan for accessing God’s peace:

1. Don’t worry about anything
2. Pray about everything
3. Tell God what you need
4. Thank God for what He’s done
5. Think about things that honor God
6. Put into practice things you learn from Scripture

Looking at this, it’s like we need to do so many things to unlock the peace of God. But I don’t think that’s what Paul meant. The six steps could be turned into two:

1. Trust God
2. Honor God

When we stress ourselves out, we are failing to trust God. We put so much pressure on ourselves to do that we forget who God wants us to be. Doing things for God is important, but it’s more important to follow Him in love, obedience, and trust.

Sometimes, though, God seems distant, and we don’t know what to do about it. While the answer is not to “pray better” or “be a better Christian,” sometimes there are things we can do to hinder or nurture our relationship with God. Maybe we are failing to honor Him with our thoughts and actions.

James gives us some good news, though. “Come close to God, and God [and His peace] will come close to you.”