Why We Lose Our Peace - Part 2

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Having peace from God doesn't mean that life will be free from problems. Continue the quest In Search of Peace on today's podcast.

We'll be right back to It's Supernatural. I want you to turn if you will to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, the apostle Paul is talking about peace here. And he tells us in the first part of this passage how to protect our peace and listen if you will what he says beginning in verse four. It says, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice, and let your gentle spirit be known to all men, the Lord is near.

And then he says, Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, every circumstance of life by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all human comprehension, will keep or guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Then he says, Now finally, brethren, whatever is true and whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Now the apostle Paul is in a Roman prison when he's writing this. How is it that a man could be in prison unjustly and here he is with peace and contentment and a sense of joy in his heart. Sixteen times he talks about the joy of the Lord.

He says, I can't really explain it. There's a peace that prevails in my life, pervades every part of me, that in spite of being in prison, in spite of the difficulties I've been through, there is a peace that keeps me no matter what. Well, let's think about this peace for a moment.

Why do we lose it? Well, this peace, the very word Irenae in the Greek, which means to bind together, to bind together something that has been disjointed and disconnected so that you and I have peace in our heart, first of all, when we are reconnected, we are rejoined. That is, when God who created us brings us back into relationship with Him, having trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, then we have the peace of God.

And that's when it all begins. And you see, the kind of peace he's talking about is a peace that's undisturbed. It is a calmness and a quietness and a restfulness. It is a sense of serenity and quietness in a person's heart that no matter what's going on in their life, it doesn't really make any difference what the circumstances are.

There is this stabilizing, awesome sense of, as he says, peace that surpasses human understanding. Is that just given to a few? But is it available to all? It is available to every single person who is wise enough to reach out and take that peace. Many people have experienced it. Many people have lost it.

Most people sort of come and go with it. They have peace today, but not tomorrow. And the reason is because they have determined that their peace is a result of their circumstances. And so they have good circumstance, they have peace. Bad circumstances don't have any peace. That is not the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ has offered us.

So we have the gift of peace. It is there not to be ruffled by the circumstances of life, though it can be and will be. There will be times in our life when we will be hit from the blind side. There'll be times when we hear news, when we find ourselves in circumstances and situations we didn't plan on. And as a result of that, all of a sudden we sense anxiety and sudden worry and fear. The apostle Paul says the way you defend yourself against that, he says immediately, here's what you do.

You cry out to the Father. He says, don't be anxious about anything. Now, does that mean that you'll never feel any anxiety?

No, but it means when you do, don't let it remain there. He says, don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, petition. That is, what we do is to cry out to God, Lord, you understand the circumstance.

You know where I am. You're the sovereign God of this universe. I'm trusting you. You promised to take care of me, never leave me, nor forsake me, meet every single need. He says our prayer garrisons us about, that is, guards us against these anxieties and these frustrations and fears, which come from our thinking and from our heart. So with that in mind, we ask ourselves the question, if that's true, then why is it we lose our peace? In other words, if we have Jesus on the inside of us living his life that is releasing his peace, he said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.

Don't be afraid. Then why do we lose it? How do we lose it? Well, listen to what the apostle Paul said. Now, finally, brethren, here's what I want you to think about. I want you to think on these things. Let your mind be enmeshed in. Let your mind be submerged in. Let your mind be permeated by.

Let your mind be dominated and captivated by what? He says things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute. And he says things that are praiseworthy. Think on these things. And if you notice that all of these are positive thoughts and this is not a message about positive thinking.

It is a message about godly thinking and why people lose their peace. If Jesus Christ lives within you, which he does if you're saved, then you're not going to lose him because he says my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish. My father which gave them to me. He says that they're in the father's hand and no one can take them out of the father's hand.

I am the father of one. So you see, once you're saved with the grace of God, you're eternally secure. So the possibility and potential for peace is within you from the moment you trust Jesus Christ as your savior.

Why do we lose it? Well, listen to what he says. He says, focus on these kind of things. Let your mind be saturated with this.

Now, let's look at these words for a moment just briefly. He says, let your mind be saturated with these things. Then he says, first of all, things that are true, things that are real, things that are genuine. So much of what the world says today is not true. Now, if we want to think what is true, turn back, if you will, to Psalm 119, the big psalm.

119, and look at the 165th verse of this 119th Psalm, because this will indeed help us to think about things that are true. Somebody says, well, what is true? And that true is a matter of opinion. Oh, no, it's not. Well, true is not relevant.

No, truth is truth. And listen to what God says in his word through David in the 119th Psalm, 165th verse. Here's what he says. Those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble. Now, what does he mean by that? He says, when you and I love the word of God, and if we love the word of God, we will meditate upon it, we will think about it, we will believe it, and we will apply it to our heart. He says those who love his law have great peace.

Why? Because those of us who love his law, we know what the truth is. We will know truth when we see it.

We will know truth when we hear it. We will not be deceived by the things in the world that are counterfeit and ungodly and absolutely unChristlike. He says we're to ponder, we're to meditate upon things that are true.

The second word you'll notice he uses is honorable. Think about things that are honorable, things that are worthy, not things that are cheap. What is it that fits a believer? In other words, if you'll think about who you are, created by the heavenly Father, Holy God, saved by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelt by His Holy Spirit, His Word has been given to us to live a holy, godly life, then a lot of thinking that goes on and a lot of actions that go on are absolutely unholy, absolutely ungodly, do not fit who we are. So they're not honorable thoughts and they're not honorable things that we ponder.

Our minds and hearts should be so valued that we don't want any junket, trashy stuff in our life. We want things that are right, things that are good. And so he says we're to think about things that are honorable. Then he uses just that term, think about things that are right. This is our behavior toward other people, our behavior toward God. We want people to be treated justly and fairly and realizing that we're all accountable to God.

And to some degree, we are accountable to each other. He said, think upon those things that are right. Somebody says, well, how will I know what's right? You open God's Word. He says, listen, those who ponder His Word have great peace.

Not passing peace, but great peace because, you know, we know what truth is. We know what's right. We know what's wrong. And there are many people who know what is right and what is wrong and chosen to live the wrong kind of life. Think about wrong things in their life. And as a result, their actions are wrong.

And as a result, they suffer the consequences. They have absolutely no peace because you can't have wrong thinking and have peace. So he says, think about things, meditate upon things that are right and that are good. How to live a godly life. He says also, think about those things that are pure. You think about all of the things you hear and you see that are morally corrupt.

Sensual, sexual thoughts, ungodly thoughts about other people, projecting on people things that are not true, gossiping about people, undermining them. These are not pure thoughts. Pure thoughts are thoughts, listen, that are consistent with the Word of God.

Pure thoughts are thoughts that are consistent with a godly life. Consistent with the life of Christ. Consistent with the principles He taught.

Consistent, listen, with the life that He lived. He says, we're to think upon those things that are pure, morally clean, not deceived by the world. The world will tell you a lot of things are okay. Listen, things can be okay in the eyes of the world but totally unright, impure in the eyes of God. Righteous living, godly living, holy living, pure living, that's the kind of living that results in peace in our life. And yet many people's minds are so corrupted, many people's minds are so full of evil and so full of wickedness, so full of ungodly, trashy, dirty, filthy thinking, there can be absolutely no peace whatsoever in that.

And yet He says we're to think those thoughts that are pure. Then He says those things that are loving, kindness and gentleness and goodness, things that are encouraging about other people. And you see, many people can't compliment anybody. They just can't compliment someone else. When it comes to gossiping about someone else, when it comes to being critical of someone else belittling, they got a mouth full of words. But when it comes to saying you're looking fantastic, when it comes to saying you did a great job, when it comes to saying you know what, I like you, when it comes to saying you have a wonderful personality, I love being with you, you seem to understand the Word of God or you seem to be such a godly person and I want to learn. In other words, they can't say it because their own pride and arrogance and all the rest is so messed up in their life.

And their life is so confused. They can't say any of those things. They can't think about things that are lovely or as He says, things of good repute. And so what the Apostle Paul is saying is, look, you want to protect your peace.

You do it in two ways. Number one, he says the moment you're hit with some anxiety, you cry out to the Father and reminding Him and claiming what is your rightful position with Him. And secondly, you think good thoughts. You think the right kind of thinking. You control what you think. Now, why all of this conversation here about the way we think? Well, because the truth is this, whatever we think, that is going to reflect itself in all of our actions. Because you see, we're not what we think we are, but we are what we think. We're not what we think we are.

We can have all kinds of distorted ideas about what we think we are. But we are what we think because our mind is the control tower in our life. And because it's the control tower of our life, the way we think is going to be the way we act. The way we think about people is going to be the way we treat them. The way we think about circumstances and situations in life is the way we're going to respond to them. What we think is extremely important. He says it's the control tower of our life. Now, some people's thinking is so messed up and so mixed up. It's sort of like concrete.

It's all mixed up and very prominently set. And when you think about some people and they say, well, I've been thinking about so-and-so. Sometimes I want to say, no, you've been rearranging your prejudices.

You haven't been objectively thinking about anything. Because if you and I really and truly think and the Spirit of God who lives within you is governing your thinking, we're going to be thinking the right things. And the right things, listen, contribute to a life of peace. You live in a world that's full of sin and wickedness and rebellion and all the rest.

And you're going to be hit from all kind of things. You see, the issue is not is it absolutely, continuously, uninterruptedly sustained? No, only Jesus can live that way. But you can quickly recover those moments of anxiety that come to you because of criticism or whatever it might be. The issue is do you have peace in your heart or have you lost it somewhere along the way?

You see, there's a rest and a calmness and a tranquility and a quietness. Will we have to wrestle with it at times? Yes, because the circumstances of life are not going to be perfect. But do we have to lose it? No. Do we have to give it up? No. Do we have to lay it down?

No. Now listen carefully. Nobody can take your peace from you. You have to surrender it. You have to yield it. You have to give it up. You have to listen to the deception of the world, the deception of the devil, give up, surrender, lay down voluntarily, willingly your peace.

You don't have to lose it unless you choose to. You say, well, how do I deal with this? Well, first of all, I want you to think for just a moment and ask yourself this question.

Listen carefully. Are my thoughts sinful? Now, I don't mean some sinful thought comes and goes.

I mean, it comes, you grab it, you meditate on it, you think about it, you focus on it, sometimes you fantasize on it. Are your thoughts in any given day some brief time or long period of time or all day, are they sinful thoughts? Are you one of those persons who's full of negative thinking? Just negative thinking. Have you discovered that a lot of your thinking is erroneous? It's not right thinking. You're thinking wrongly about yourself. And the things that you think about, you think, well, sure, this must be right, but it's negative thinking, it's erroneous thinking. Are you thinking some things about yourself that are unrealistic? They're just unrealistic. That's just not the way life is. Or deep down inside are your thoughts rebellious? I'm going to get it done no matter what, and I'm going to have my way in this no matter what. Are you obsessed with your thoughts? Are you enslaved by them?

You cannot, you will not, absolutely under any condition experience peace in your heart if your thoughts fall in those categories and you allow them to remain there. So you say, well, how do I deal with that? Listen very carefully.

Don't miss this. It's really just this simple. Do I want peace and do I not want it? If I want it, I know how to get it. I have Christ in my life.

And when I give Him the key to my will daily, moment by moment, whatever the decision that crops up, when I say, Lord, you have the key to my will, what would you have me to do? You're going to live in peace no matter what your circumstances, no matter what people say, no matter what they do, no matter how things change, how they come and go. Your peace will prevail no matter what. So what am I saying? Your peace, nobody can steal it, nobody can take it away.

It's the way you think and the way you respond. If you want the kind of peace I'm talking about, it is a choice that you make. It's a choice to experience that peace.

It's a choice to keep that peace. And it's yours for the asking and the turning over of the key to your will. And Father, how grateful we are, you make things so simple for us and so plain just to realize that all the struggle, the fretting, the anxiety and the worry and the doubting and the fears that crop up in our lives, all so unnecessary. Father, and I pray today in Jesus' name that somebody who's listening to this message would decide right now, trusting Jesus as my Savior, turning it all over to Him, giving the key to my will to the Son of God. But we ask it in His name. Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Why We Lose Our Peace. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.