Peace: Getting God's Perspective

(3rd article in the Discipleship Series)

By now, many of you are aware that I am a Flight Attendant for a major US carrier.  There are times when I fly out of a city experiencing terrible weather.  It’s dark, it’s raining, it’s depressing.  But shortly after takeoff we’ll explode through the low hanging clouds and experience unbelievable beauty.  The darkness is gone.  The sun is shining and it’s perfectly clear.  I have an overwhelming sense that this is life from God’s perspective and there is complete PEACE.

This is what life is like when we learn to trust God.  The troubles of life don’t really matter because we see life from God’s perspective.  It’s a peace that passes all understanding.

Be careful for nothing (don’t be anxious about anything); but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the PEACE OF GOD, WHICH PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

But how do we get there?  Life has a lot of anxiety.  How do you keep from worrying?  How do you stop being fearful?

You do it when you:

1.  Deal with natural information.
2.  Trust God for all your needs.
3.  Meditate on scripture.

Deal With Natural Information

Living in God’s peace has a lot to do with how you deal with natural information.  What is natural information?  Natural information is information we gather with our 5 senses.  We use this information to determine how we think things are going in our lives.  How’s our marriage?  How’s our family?  How’s our finances?  How’s our health?  How are we?

When we pray to God, we ask Him to change our situation— to help us.  We gauge His response based on whether we think He answers our prayers or not.

But have you noticed that all these perceptions are based on a natural perspective?

What about our spiritual perspective?  What about the perspective that says, we have victory through Christ?

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57

What about the perspective that says, we are more than conquerors through Christ?

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:37

What about the perspective that says, all things work together for good to them that love God?

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

When we see our situation from God’s perspective, we step away from the idea that what we see in the natural, is what God's sees in the spiritual.  When we see things from God's perspective we “fly” out of the dark and dreary into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

That’s how you deal with natural information, by faith you see what’s beyond the natural— you see life from God’s perspective.  In this God gives you peace. 

To dramatize how this could look in real life, consider the following story:

A farmer had one horse that he used for tilling his fields.  One day the horse escaped into the hills.  When the farmer’s neighbors heard about it, they sympathized with the man over his bad luck.  “Bad luck?  Good luck?  Who knows?” said the farmer.

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills.  This time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck.  “Good luck?  Bad luck?  Who knows?” said the farmer.

Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg.  Everyone agreed that this was very bad luck.  Not the farmer, who replied, “Bad luck?  Good luck?  Who knows.”

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and forced every able-bodied young man to go fight in a bloody war.  When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they let him stay.  Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck.

Good luck?  Bad luck?

When we look at life from God’s perspective, WE KNOW He's in control and we don't have to worry— we have peace.

Trust God for All Your Needs

It’s natural to want to meet your needs.  But as we saw in the last section, the natural man doesn’t receive or understand the things of the spirit.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural man goes about life trying to meet his needs.  The result is fear, anxiety and frustration.  Why?  Because the natural man has to CONTROL people and situations in order to get what he wants.

Rather than trusting the Lord to meet his needs, he creates IDOLS trying to attain them.  His needs become idols when he places securing them OVER his trust in the Lord.

Didn’t God promise that if we sought His Kingdom first He would meet our needs?

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.
Matthew 6:33

Our purpose in life is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.  As we walk in the fruit of His Spirit, God meets all our needs and gives us His peace— peace that passes all understanding.

Meditate on Scripture

Some people do not understand the difference between reading and studying scripture and meditating on scripture.  When we read and study scripture it gets in our HEAD.  When we meditate on scripture it gets in our HEART.  When it’s in your heart it will change you.  It will give you the PEACE that passes all understanding.  That’s because God’s truth finds its way into our sub-conscious.  God directs His truth from the inside out and we are more confident.

For more information on what Biblical meditation is and how it works, read my article, The Purpose of Meditation.

Conclusion

The Bible says that we have PEACE with God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

Even so, often times we don’t have the peace of God in our hearts.  Why?

Well, for all the reasons mentioned above of course:

1.  We are overwhelmed with natural information.
2.  We try to secure our own needs.
3.  We don’t get God’s word deep into our hearts through meditation.

... but also because we:

Don’t understand who God is— we fear His punishment.

Who does the Bible say God is?

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16

God is love.  If you get a hold of that concept, you will dwell in love, you will dwell in God, you won’t be afraid of punishment.  That’s because perfect love casts out fear.  If you are fearful, you are not perfect in God’s love.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18

But does God ever punish?

That's the topic of our next session.  We'll cover the fruit of GENTLENESS!

If you have a sense of fear or dread in your life, listen to this video:

Overcoming Fear Part 1


 

Here is today’s Fruit of the Spirit Card.