Finding Peace Amidst Chaos: A Spiritual Journey
by Elizabeth Prata
I made that collage above shortly after I was saved. I was reading Philippians, which famously says,
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7).
I liked to think that I could be calmly drinking tea, when the world around me becomes chaotic.
I think we all like to think that.
I’ll get real here. There were predicted some severe storms to come last weekend. Not just one or two weather guys, but most weather guys were saying it was a once in a lifetime event, deaths will occur, and all that. They were serious this time. We do get tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. But usually the energy in the storms dissipates to below severe levels once they pass through Mississippi, Alabama and western Georgia and get to us here in East Georgia.
I thought, well, maybe not this time. The weather guys all were strongly recommending citizens take all due precautions. I began to get nervous. Tornadoes freak me out. I prepared in all the ways the emergency organizations and the weather people said to. I got more and more nervous as Saturday dragged on. I kept saying ‘God’s got this and then I’d take it back and get nervous again. In my opinion anxiety shows distrust in God’s goodness, omniscience, and wisdom in all circumstances- even uncomfortable, dire, or life-threatening ones. I was troubled by my lack of equanimity. I was all, ‘Lord, I trust you! Help my untrust!’
So I finally put my hands together and had a long talk with Jesus in a focused, worshipful prayer. And then I became peaceful.
As to the verse, what does it really mean? You know that it makes sense on the surface but it also makes sense when you read it and meditate more deeply, and then it has an even deeper meaning if you go even deeper with it. That is how the scriptures are alive, helpful with meaning no matter how many times you read it. According to Strong’s, in the Greek all the words mean exactly what you think they’d mean. I thought Barnes’ Notes had the best commentary on the verse.
And the peace of God – The peace which God gives. The peace here particularly referred to is that which is felt when we have no anxious care about the supply of our needs, and when we go confidently and commit everything into the hands of God. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee;” Isaiah 26:3; see the notes at John 14:27.
Which passeth all understanding – That is, which surpasses all that people had conceived or imagined. The expression is one that denotes that the peace imparted is of the highest possible kind. The apostle Paul frequently used terms which had somewhat of a hyperbolical cast (see the notes on Ephesians 3:19; compare John 21:25), and the language here is that which one would use who designed to speak of that which was of the highest order. The Christian, committing his way to God, and feeling that he will order all things aright, has a peace which is nowhere else known. Nothing else will furnish it but religion. No confidence that a man can have in his own powers; no reliance which he can repose on his own plans or on the promises or fidelity of his fellow-men, and no calculations which he can make on the course of events, can impart such peace to the soul as simple confidence in God.
Shall keep your hearts and minds – That is, shall keep them from anxiety and agitation. The idea is, that by thus making our requests known to God, and going to him in view of all our trials and wants, the mind would be preserved from distressing anxiety. The way to find peace, and to have the heart kept from trouble, is thus to go and spread out all before the Lord. –end Barnes’ Notes
It is OK that we may get nervous, anxious, scared. We’re human. God knows this. But when we feel those things we have a holy Priest who hears our prayers and stands ready to impart this peace to us.
1. The peace we are promised is given,
2. The peace we are given is not simply offered, it is imparted to our body/mind/heart,
3. The peace we are given which is imparted soothes us to our very soul,
4. We do not understand how this occurs (passed all understanding) but it does. It simply does.
Just saying ‘God’s got this’ is head knowledge that is uttered in my own strength. It wasn’t enough to calm me before the storms came. But focused prayer and appealing to the Great Intercessor delivered a peace that shouldn’t be, but it is. It prompted Paul to sing in jail, Stephen to appeal on behalf of the stone throwers even as the stones rained down, for isolated Apostle John to worship on the rock of Patmos.
Picture this peace as a holy, heavenly blanket swaddling us, Christ’s babes, enveloping us to soothe the wrinkled heart, the troubled mind the restless soul.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7).
