FIGHTING FOR PEACE
“When peace like a river attendeth my way” is the beautiful start of one of my favorite hymns, “It is Well with My Soul”. I love the imagery, but also question it. Rivers are often tumultuous: crashing through canyons, roiling around boulders and deceptively eddying beneath trees. Maybe I’ve gone rafting too many times to feel the fitness of the metaphor.
“Peace like a child sleeping” is another questionable analogy. However peaceful they may look, they can start up with howling at a moment’s notice. Usually right after you’ve fallen asleep or gotten other kids to sleep.
In fact, peace is difficult to describe. It’s almost easier to define by what it’s not. A lack of turmoil, conflict, anxiety, stress, chaos, violence…
I currently know three women that I care for deeply who are going through serious difficulties. One is 5/6 of the way through chemotherapy. One just got diagnosed with cancer and is facing surgery. They will both be having radiation therapy. Another has aging parents who flew far away and then had a medical emergency. I’ve been praying. A lot.
I’ve also been thinking about peace…as opposed to the natural reaction of anxiety.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t you just love the command to not be anxious? Like, “Just turn it off!” But maybe what follows the command shows us the path to this seemingly impossible destination.
Praying about everything requires the kind of abiding that Jesus recommended in John 15. It’s the constant connection of a branch with a tree, receiving all of its sustenance from the source. Letting your requests be known to God, over and over, without ceasing (Thess 5:17), even when it doesn’t seem to be yielding the results you hoped for, calls for faith and trust.
Jesus also told a parable about a poor, mistreated widow who seeks justice from a unscrupulous judge (Luke 18). She wears him out with asking for help and finally, to shut her up, he does. Jesus actually encourages us to come to God in the same way. There would be no reason to keep asking if God always responded the first time. Now, to be clear, sometimes He does. And it’s wonderful and faith building. But often He lets us come again and again with the same request until either our hearts are changed so we can ask for something better or it is finally the perfect time for His answer. And there would be no reason to trust God unless we were made to wait. And that is wonderful and faith strengthening.
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You. Isaiah 26:3
Perfect peace. What more could anyone want? But what does it mean to “fix” our thoughts on God? I think of “affixing” something to a wall, like a towel rack. We are creating a strong connection, kind of like that branch to a tree. But fixing our thoughts on God isn’t going to be a “once-and-done” proposition. Because like a branch or towel rack, separation can occur. If something too heavy bears down on them, they will fall.
You can’t prevent the weight of the world pressing on your mind. There are daily internal and external stressors trying to push our thoughts away from God. It’s almost as if we have an enemy that is afraid of what happens when God’s people stay “plugged in” to His power and peace. You can fight against the pressure though.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
To take every thought captive to obey Christ means that we have to be diligent to not let just anything linger in the corners of our minds. When we notice fear closing in around our hearts, that’s the time to examine our thoughts. When we realize it’s been a long time since we’ve filled our lungs with air, let it trigger you to practice a breath prayer. This means breathing in deeply while saying or praying a phrase that recalibrates our minds and then breathing out the next line. Here’s an example: on your deep inhalation say, “Don’t worry about anything” and on the complete exhalation say, “Pray about everything.” Or, “You keep me in perfect peace” and “I trust in You.”
I remember hearing once that we can imagine our thoughts like actors going across the stage of our minds saying all kinds of things. We may not be able to prevent the first appearance of any of them, but we can kick out the loiterers who are not speaking Truth. I’ve even gone so far as to imagine “thought police” arresting an unhelpful thought and escorting it out my ear!
Another strategy is to give yourself a change of scenery. Go for a walk and listen to music or a podcast that fills your minds with Truth and turns your eyes back to God.
Tactical verbiage is appropriate because this is war. You do have an enemy and he does not want you to fix your thoughts on God or stay connected so you can bear the weight of the next hardship. He enjoys seeing us spin ourselves into knots like a kitten and a ball of yarn.
But God. God wants to unravel the mess of our minds and flood us with His peace. His perfect peace. Will we fix our thoughts on Him? Will we take those errant thoughts captive? Will we abide? Will we trust? It’s a moment-by-moment choice.
