5 Powerful Biblical Steps to Experience God’s Peace
Jesus said we could experience God’s peace even in a stressful world.
The benefits of peace are remarkable. We are much healthier, productive, and happier when we are in peaceful environments and have high levels of peace inside us.
Godly peace is refreshing, clears mental and emotional fog, and is most often accompanied by increased joy.
Peace really is powerful.
Since the fall of Adam, our souls and our world have had to work at having peace. Sin and Satan work to kill, steal, and destroy anything godly and good and peace is one of those.. (John 10:10a, ESV, Galatians 5:22–24, ESV).
From the loss of internal peace, losing external peace soon manifested itself when Cain murdered Abel. It didn’t take long at all for sin to produce the opposite of peace.
The Gospel connects us to God’s peace.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1, ESV)
Through faith in Jesus, we receive justification with God (“Just as if I had” never sinned). God has forgiven us completely for all our wrongdoings and because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we have peace with Him.
Peace with God is the only starting point for real peace within ourselves.The more people who have peace with God and peace in themselves, the more we can have peace in our world.
Angry, selfish souls can never produce a freely peaceful world. But those born of God’s Spirit, though never perfect in this life, can increase peace levels through their presence, words, and actions.
We not only have peace with God, we get to experience God’s peace in us.
The Bible says we can have God’s peace.This is one of the most wonderful aspects of being a follower of Jesus. We can experience in this life increasing measures of the life of God.
Peace is a major aspect of this abundant life Jesus so often spoke of. Romans 14:17, NASB95 tells us, “God’s kingdom is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you.” (John 14:27, ESV).
God always has peace within Himself. Even though Jesus lived in an incredibly stressful environment with literally the weight of the world on His shoulders, He always had peace within Himself.
This is the peace that is available to all of us.
We play a big role in how much peace we experience.
In John 14:28, ESV the verse immediately after Jesus promises us His peace, He says, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Jesus said the same thing in John 14:1, ESV, immediately after He told Peter that Peter would deny him 3 times. “Let not your hearts be troubled,.”
If I had just heard I was going to deny Jesus three times, I would certainly have a troubled heart.
But, right after Jesus told Peter he would do such an awful thing, He tells the entire group not to let their hearts be troubled.”
Two times in just a few paragraphs,, Jesus told them they could do something about the fear and anxiety levels of their own hearts. Whether or not we feel like it, according to Jesus, we can take steps to keep from being innerly worried and afraid.
How do we keep our hearts from being troubled? How do we experience the peace of Jesus?
That’s what we’ll look at now.
- Believe
We just saw in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God through faith in God.
Jesus emphasizes this again in John 14:1–2, ESV “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe in me also. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
This is so important.
No matter how bad or crazy the world gets, we have complete assurance that eventually we will be with Jesus in the Father’s house.
Believing that gives us a foundation for unshakeable peace. Our time on earth will someday be over, but our assurance of eternal life with God is solid and never ending.
Believing that imparts peace in our souls.We are going to spend eternity with Jesus in places He is preparing, especially for us.
Power Packed Peace Passage
Philippians 4:6–9 is probably the most concise, power-packed section in Scripture about practical steps we can take to live in God’s peace.Once our faith is solidly in Jesus and the assurance of eternal life with Him is internalized, the following steps work really well.
Here’s what it says
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.(7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
2.The Promise
Scripture repeatedly tells us we can have the very peace of God. The peace of God surpasses, is greater than all understanding.
It might not make sense to have peace in some of our circumstances, but we still can because God’s peace is greater than what we understand to be happening..
We not only have His peace in us, but God promises that His peace will actually act as a guard. God’s peace will guard both our hearts and our minds as through our union with Jesus.
It’s the picture of fear and anxiety fighting to get into our souls, but God’s peace is greater, is stronger, guarding our hearts and minds so those things cannot enter.
The peace of God is stronger than the fear, worry, and anxiety of the world, and God’s peace will protect and guard our souls.
This is God’s great promise to us.
3.Pray
The key step to having God’s supernatural peace guard our hearts and minds in Jesus is to…
Pray
Prayer connects us to the Presence of the Person who is the source of all life.
When we pray to God in Jesus’ name, by faith we have access to the Presence of God, direct interaction with the Person of God.
In His presence, the impossible becomes so very possible. In His presence, fear, worry, and anxiety have no leg to stand on. He has power beyond our imagination and love that cannot be measured.
So, Scripture says instead of worrying, pray.
Pray with this powerful faith builder
We are encouraged to let our requests be known to God; don’t hold back. He cares about us and desires the best for us more than the greatest human parents.
What turns our requests from worrisome complaints (yes, sometimes we Christians pray ourselves into more worry by focusing on the severity of the problem rather than on the love and greatness of God) is…
Thanksgiving
“But in everything by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God.”
Thanksgiving is one of the most powerful faith and peace releasers in existence.
When worry, fear, and anxiety knock on the door of our souls or even when it’s screaming and pounding on the door, we do not have to let our hearts be troubled.
It may sometimes feel like the fear is too strong. Fearful thoughts may feel like they will never stop, but according to Jesus, that is not true.
Jesus said, “do not let your hearts be troubled.”One of the very best ways to do that is, instead of worrying, pray about everything WITH THANKSGIVING.
Thanksgiving turns pleas into praise and praise releases God’s power.
When I pray and say, “Father, I just got terrible news and I don’t know what to do about it. Your word says to bring my request to you, to pray about everything,so I’m taking that step.
I thank you that you care. Thank you, that you have solutions. Thank you, that your promises are true and that you are absolutely faithful.”
When we bring our requests to God with thanksgiving, THEN God’s peace will guard our souls.
4.Ponder
We all know the biggest challenge to internal peace is our thoughts. God knows that too, so immediately after showing us how to pray to experience God’s peace, He addresses thoughts.
Philippians 4:8, ESV says, “Finally, brothers…..think about these things.” Between those two phrases, Scripture tells us what kinds of things to think about, what kinds of things to PONDER to live in God’s peace and power.
“Whatever is” honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise “think about these things.”
It’s like 2 Corinthians 10:4, ESV encouraging us to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
We pray with thanksgiving about everything. Then we follow up by pondering, thinking about positive, biblical promises, and virtues.
This is a life-changing combination: prayer with thanksgiving and pondering godly virtues and truth.
Pray and ponder, based on the Promises, leads to God’s peace.
God also knows this doesn’t happen automatically, so He encourages us to…
5.Practice
Philippians 4:9 “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–PRACTICE these things and the God of peace will be with you.”
None of us will live lives of unshakeable peace immediately, but we can grow through practice. We can get progressively better at it.
No one gets great at something without practice and it’s the same with living in God’s peace. We will all have times when we let our hearts
be troubled”, but we don’t have to stay there.
We can increase our living in God’s peace percentages through practice.
God’s promise through Paul is that if we practice the things Paul has been writing, teaching, and living, then “the God of peace will be with us.”
This leads us back to the beginning. When we have assurance, we have peace with God and He is with us, we can lean on His promises, pray, and ponder the right things.
We can increase the experiential presence of the God of peace with us through these practices.
Peace is one of the wonderful topics that is written about throughout the Bible.These five practices will take you far; they will increase your “peace of God” percentages greatly.
Let’s review them quickly:
- Belief in the Gospel gives us Peace with God, we can then
- Believe the Promise of Peace
- Pray with Thanksgiving
- Ponder godly things
- Practice these things
It’s encouraging to know that we do not have to let worry, fear, or anxiety dominate our souls. We do not have to “let our hearts be troubled.”
These five steps will take us a long way in experiencing the peace of God as a way of life, even in a fallen and often hard world.
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