How to Protect Our Peace - Part 2

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Can you have peace when the world seems to be in chaos all the time? Philippians 4 teaches us how to meet any difficulty with calm quietness. Would you say that your life is characterized by want of peace or would you say it's rather by disturbance, anxiety, fretting, caring, sometimes even the point of being angry over your circumstance? Whatever happened to that peace that you experienced and you thought, this is absolutely wonderful.

Could you explain it? Could you determine why you were so peaceful at that moment? Was it something because of your outward circumstances that everything at that moment seemed to be in such perfect order in your life? But why did you lose it?

And could you have kept it? And can peace really be an attitude and an experience and a joy in your life that's there most of the time and not just sometime? Well, I want to tell you, you don't have to look at life that way. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Philippians chapter 4. And here is the answer to how to protect that peace.

Here's the answer to understanding what it is and how to protect it and how you can live in it daily. Let's look, if you will, beginning in this fourth chapter. And let's just start with verse four. And Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. And then he says, be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now the Bible says that you and I have peace with God when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior for the forgiveness of our sins. The moment we do that, believing in the testimony of His Word, believing that our confession and our repentance, He will respond to that by forgiving us of our sins, not based on our conduct, behavior, promises, but based on the death of Jesus at Calvary that makes that forgiveness possible. Then when you and I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, something very wonderful happens in our heart. And what Paul is speaking of here is a peace, listen, that will be tried oftentimes in life because we live in a world that's very unpeaceful and warlike. It is not dependent upon any particular circumstance in our life because the peace that He gives is beyond and above our circumstances, as he says.

It is the absence of worry and doubt and fear, but it is a very stabilizing, restful kind of peace. Now somebody says, well, but you certainly ought to be, you've got to be concerned about things. Now there's a difference between being concerned and being anxious. Concern is a caring about things in which you also recognize God has a part in that. Anxiety is something totally different. So are we going to be caring about things?

Yes, we are. You care about your family. You care about how you look. You care about your work. You care about doing a good job in your life. So there are those legitimate concerns in life which all of us have, and certainly our Lord would expect us to know.

Why does He tell us to act irresponsible? But we're to live in peace, and we certainly will have cares and concerns in our life. And I know what people say.

You say, well, now listen, you mean to tell, no, remember what we said? We're not talking about escaping reality. We're not talking about escaping the struggles. We're not talking about denying the fact that there are difficulties.

We're talking about being able to view them from the view of the Lord Jesus Christ and protecting our peace. You don't have to lose it because the circumstances have gotten so bad. We lose it because we lay it down. We choose to lay it down. We choose to feel a certain way. We choose to think a certain way. We choose to think a certain way, lose our peace. Choose to let certain emotions envelop us, overwhelm us, overshadow us, penetrate us, pervade our heart, we lose our peace.

It is a decision that we make. It isn't a circumstance that forces itself upon us. It cannot force itself upon a child of God who said, and what Paul said in Corinthians, he said, no temptation or trial has taken you, but such is as common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested, tempted, and tried more than you're able to bear as you trust in Him, but will be able to make a way of escape that you and I may be able to bear it.

And so therefore He's in control. What we have to ask is how are we going to respond to it? Now, what kind of effect does anxiety have on us? Well, first of all, it divides our mind. When a person is anxious about something, they're pulled in two different directions. When you're pulled in two different directions, you're not concentrating. And there are lots of people who can't focus on anything. This is why people do such a poor job in their vocation. They're anxious about something in life, anxious maybe about many things in life.

And you know what? They can't do a good job. Why?

Because their mind's divided. They're trying to do this and worried about that. Want to do a good job up here, but deeply concerned and worried and agitated about this. You cannot live in anxiety and do a good job at whatever you're doing in life, nor will you be satisfied with yourself.

Listen, after a while, you won't even like yourself. And what's happened is you have allowed anxiety to so overwhelm and penetrate you. It's affecting every aspect of your life. So let's think about some of the ways it affects. And we said, first of all, it divides the mind. That's certainly one way. Secondly, it makes us afraid to act.

People are paralyzed by anxiety. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.

I've got these choices here. And some people say I should do this and some people say I should do that. And I read the Bible and I pray and I do this and I do that and I ask Kim and I ask her and I went to this counseling. You know what?

I don't know what to do. Is that the way God intends for us to live? Absolutely not. That would be a terrible testimony on the Christian life if we had to live in that kind of a situation. Sometimes its effect on a person's life is they withdraw. They become just anxious with life and they don't know what to do and how to handle it.

They just withdraw. Sometimes they get into depression. And that is one of the primary reasons for depression is anxiety. Listen, you live in anxiety long enough and you don't know how to deal with it and you don't know how to get out of it. Next thing you know, you're going to be in a state of depression and your depression is going to make you that much more anxious. The more anxious you get, the more depressed you become. The more depressed you become, the more anxious you get. And it is a horrible spiraling down to destroy your life. Everything from heart attacks to all kinds of situations and circumstances that develop. God never intended that.

One of the primary reasons we are so unhealthy is we are so unspiritual. Trying to live in a world that is so opposed to what we believe and violating the very principles that God has given to us in His Word. How can we expect to be the persons that God wants us to be?

To live the life that God wants us to live when we are following, listen, we're looking and acting like the world. He says, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. He says, the peace that I give to you will sustain you and uphold you and guard you and keep you. Guard your mind what you think.

Guard your heart the way you feel. And those two things about us must be guarded. And He says, I'll give you a peace that will guard all of that.

So the big question is this. How do I protect this peace? How am I able to live in the midst of difficulty, trial, heartache, attacks and accusations and your job and all the things you have to deal with, maybe sometimes ill health? How is it possible to protect our peace? Is it really and truly possible?

And I want to tell you, yes, it is. Listen to what Paul says. Be anxious for nothing. Now remember, that doesn't mean you escape reality. It doesn't mean that you retreat from responsibility. It doesn't mean you're not going to have any knocks and bruises.

It doesn't mean you're not going to have any tests and trials. He says, but don't be anxious about it. Listen, be anxious for nothing. But in everything, not some things, not most things, everything, no matter how little you see, anxiety often starts with something little.

And then it grows. Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Now what does he say? Now watch this and you just run right across this and miss it because you're going to say, well, they can't be that simple. I didn't say it was simple. I'm just saying what the apostle Paul said works.

It's practical. Or he would never have said later on in that chapter, I've learned in every circumstance to be content, which means I have been able to experience peace no matter what I've faced in life. Now remember this, there is no promise of peace to people who are living outside the will of God. There's no promise of peace to anybody who's deliberately, willfully, knowingly disobeying God. So let's just put this down to begin with.

Here's the answer, but the answer must be prefaced by this. You're outside the will of God for your life, you're not going to have peace. You're living disobedient before God, no peace. You're deliberately sinning against God, no peace. You plan to sin against God, no peace. You're living with past guilt and you won't deal with it, no peace. You're angry toward someone, bitter toward someone, hostile toward someone, blaming God for something in your life, no peace.

There's not going to be any peace until you deal with the issue of obedience in your life. So what happens when you get hit with something? Bad news, incident, whatever it might be. Listen to what he says. Now watch this. He says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Now what does he say? Now watch this carefully. He's saying when you are tempted or suddenly you're hit with something and you get that overwhelming sense of, oh dear God, the first thing you do is you lift your heart to the Father and you pray.

Now watch what's happening. What happens is instantly, immediately your mind gets off of what has caused you the trouble and gets it on God. Now this is the God who is sovereign and controlled everything. This is the God who's omniscient and knows all about all the details. This is the God who loves you unconditionally.

He's going to do the best thing. So what you do, he says, don't be anxious about everything, but everything by prayer and supplication. Now what he uses four different words, all of which refer to prayer, but they have a little different emphasis. First of all, he says the word prayer here and notice he says prayer and supplication.

So let's divide them up. First of all, prayer. That word is general prayer. That is, that's your praying each day and reading your scriptures, for example, meditating upon the Word of God and so forth. And what he's saying is this, and this is why I oftentimes bring it to you.

One of the best preservers of your peace, a guard for your peace, is your own personal private meditation every day. And that is talking to the Father about your life and that's your schedule for that day. And you see, this is why in the morning before you get out of bed or thereafter pretty soon, you ought to talk to him about what's going to happen today.

That is what you know is going to happen. And what you're doing is you're reminding him that he's in control of your schedule today. He's in control of your life. And you can thank him for what he's going to do.

And you're trusting him. That's your prayer. Then the second word is supplication. Now we're coming down to things that are very intense, those things that would cause you to feel desperate, those things that would cause you to cry out to God about. Those things, for example, that would cause you to feel an intense desire to pour out your heart. Now listen, you can cry out to God without losing your peace, without being thrown into the category of anxiety because we don't want our way more than we want God's way, not pushed into some ill-will decision, none of those kind of things.

We're just crying at him. There's an intensity. There's an intensity of our plea to the Father. So that's what he's talking about in supplication.

Then if you'll notice he says with thanksgiving, why would he add that in there? Because thanksgiving again gets my mind off of what is trying me at that moment onto God and reminding me of what? Reminding me of how he's blessed in the past, reminding me of the promises at present, reminding me that he's a God who can and will take care of this situation, this circumstance. And so it's reminding us.

And what is it doing? You can't be in the dumps praising God at the same time. If you are praising the Father and you are giving him glory and honor and those moments, what's happening? You have a sense of peace in your heart because listen, your mind and heart is God-centered. It's God-centered.

It's not situation circumstance-centered. It's God-centered. When you and I are God-centered, we're going to have peace.

So he says with thanksgiving. Then he says, let your request be made known to God. And this word simply speaks in terms of specific, listen, boldly coming to Him, asking. For example, he says, this is the confidence that you and I have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. If we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petition we desired of Him.

And therefore we can come boldly, confidently, specifically asking Him for particular requests. Listen, with great thanksgiving in our heart for what He has done, what He's going to do, crying out to Him, telling Him the intensity, the concern of our heart, the deep burden we have on our heart for this person or this situation, this circumstance, and lifting them up to Him with absolute confidence. Listen, he says you want to protect your peace. When you get hit with something, the first thing you do, he says, don't be anxious about it. He says, bring it to God, bring it to the Father immediately. And you will not lose your peace.

You focused on Him, you're going to have peace no matter what. Let me ask you one question. Listen carefully. Name me one circumstance, difficult, trying, hard, strenuous, sorrowful, perturbing and penetrating and painful circumstance in life, just one that God can't handle.

Not a single solitary one. He can handle it. And Jesus said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. Let not your heart be troubled. And Paul put it this way, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God will so garrison your heart around, so cover you and so surround you, listen, so surround you with a peace that is past all human understanding, it will guard, protect your mind from being allowed to be carried off into anxiety. Your heart from becoming anxious and unruly in Christ Jesus. Now His whole key is that last word, in Christ.

You know what that means? It means this is for believers only. You never trusted Jesus as your Savior, that's not going to work. There is only one peace giver, and that's Jesus. And the only way you receive His peace is by receiving Himself by faith in the confession of your sins and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Then you have the gift of peace. And the question is this, do you want to sustain it? Now watch this carefully, listen to me carefully. I like to put a hole in the top of your head, throw this in and seal it down real tight so you can never get away from it.

But I can't do that. Listen carefully. Peace is a gift that you can enjoy no matter what the circumstance may be. This is why I can stand with a hospital bed with someone who knows they don't have but a few weeks or maybe a few days to live. And this awesome sense of tranquility, this awesome sense of peace and restfulness on their face, not anxiety, but perfect peace because they've not allowed their circumstance to penetrate their mind and heart and steal from them what God has given them.

Do you want His peace? It's yours for the asking. But listen, here's the key.

When anxiety hits you, the first response is Father. And if you'll make that your first response, it'll be like a blip on your emotional heart. But you'll move on with perfect peace. And you will not be thrown off base. You'll not lose your peace. And you will learn just how loving God is in your life. Thank you for listening to How to Protect Our Peace. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.