Peace is sourced in a person. Jesus is our peace. We can know His peace regardless of our circumstances. We can have a calm mind and a confident heart. It takes practice to develop a lifestyle that keeps us in harmony with God, aware of His presence, and living with assurance of faith. Proven spiritual practices can empower any believer to abide in Christ and enjoy His peace. These ten practices are biblical, practical, and highly effective at keeping the believer living in worriless calm that comes from a surrendered heart and a renewed mind. "Fear not" is commanded and the peace of Christ is promised. God will deliver on His Word when we take His way. Like anything worthwhile it takes training but these practices are doable with most taking a change in focus. Some require a commitment of time in an area you probably have known needs attention. This can be the nudge you need to make a change. These habits develop a routine that you enjoy as you experience closer walk with Jesus. Peace is not a one and done proposition. Peace emanates from a close relationship with Jesus. If we seek peace for it's own sake, it will elude us. If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, peace will be given that is unshakeable. Peace is a fruit of living in God's Spirit surrendered to His will. Peace will come with the right practices.
The following spiritual practices treat the whole person--body, mind, and spirit.
THE PRACTICES
CHAPTER 3: Move Your Body
CHAPTER 4: Clear Your Conscience
CHAPTER 5: Renew Your Mind
CHAPTER 6: Refine Your Faith
CHAPTER 7: Process Your Emotions
CHAPTER 8: Center Your Heart
CHAPTER 9: Surrender Your Will
CHAPTER 10: Ground Your Soul
CHAPTER 11: Accept Yourself
CHAPTER 12: Love Your Neighbor
These relational, spiritual, physical, and mental practices seek to bring the whole person under the rule of God in Christ. They equip us to integrate our life under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus practiced customs that kept Him focused showing us the pattern for living. These disciplines are to bring our whole life into harmony with God.
G
od is our safe place. He is our shelter in the storm, our refuge in the night, and our fortress in the battle. To dwell in conscious awareness of God’s presence is to dwell in peace. He is our secret place of security.
The Lord is our spiritual home. It’s where we belong. Our mind is put at ease there. There is no safer or sweeter place to be than in His presence. God is our sanctuary.
We are to live in Christ, abide in Him. Anxiety and stress can’t survive under the shadow of the Almighty. Our soul can relax and be relieved of tension in the shel-ter of the Most High. Where is that shelter? He is with you right now.
Jesus tells us, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
Jesus and the Father have come and made their home with you. They live with you. That’s why we don’t need to be troubled about anything.
When we are at home, we are at peace, comfortable, and at ease. The Triune God has made His home with every true believer—our home is God Himself.
We often think of our home with God in heaven, and we should. But God didn’t wait. Jesus and the Father have made their home with us on earth right now. Take some time and let that peace-giving truth sink in.
God will always be with you wherever you go and whatever you do. When you can perceive Him by your side, you will experience peace regardless of where you are physically—whether you are in a prison like Paul or on a vacation by the sea. When your heart is in its rightful place, your mind will be at ease.
Live Inside Your Home
Not being aware of the abiding presence of God is like getting home at night from a long day at work but not going inside your house to enjoy its light, comfort, and safety.
The next time you come home from somewhere, im-agine what it would be like not to go in your house—just take a seat on the lawn. Feel what it’s like.
Cooking, sitting, and sleeping outside in the elements is stressful. You realize how vulnerable you are at night when you are living without a shelter. We forfeit peace and comfort and much more when we are not consciously abiding in God’s presence.
We are meant to live in Christ and enjoy the security He gives. Our spiritual home is bigger than any problem and more compelling than any person. God’s voice can calm any storm. His gentle touch can reassure every heart. His food is the best, and His water is the sweetest.
God’s Sovereignty
To accept God’s will when it is in opposition to our own necessitates belief in two things: that God is good, and God is in control. The Bible declares these two attributes of God from Genesis to Revelation. God is our good and sovereign King.
Nothing is done or happens except that which God has foreseen from all eternity and decreed or permitted. He is sovereign over all. God never decrees evil. He never intentionally wills anything but good. But God does allow evil to exist. If He did not permit evil, then you and I would not exist.
God dignified humanity when He created us with a free will. He won’t downgrade us to puppet status. We are made in His image. But with that precious and dignifying free will, He permitted the opportunity for evil, injustice, and suffering to exist through us. When we fell into sin, all of creation fell into disorder.
But God has good news—an intentional plan to re-deem sinners, bring justice, vanquish evil, and cause all things to work together for “the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Our will can be His will once again. God’s divine or-der is restored and paradise is reclaimed in every surrendered heart.
It’s a challenge to trust in the goodness of God when good is not apparent, and we are looking at evil, suffering, or death. But, we haven’t seen the end from the beginning like God has. We must trust in God’s Word in the darkness. We must lay aside our own understanding and trust in His heart.
To trust Him in dire moments is to accept those mo-ments as willed by God. This is our act of faith. This trusting acceptance results in spiritual peace.
The Holy Spirit brings calm assurance that the situa-tion is in God’s hands, and God will be vindicated and glorified. Put it in God’s hands and let yourself go to Jesus. Trust the arms that hold you and the heart that draws you close.
Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a diving accident, wrote in her book, The God I Love, “Sometimes God allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”
The life that Joni imagined for herself broke apart the day of her diving accident, but as she processed this life event with God over the years, she experienced the depth of God’s love and peace that few of us have.
In her helplessness, God continues to make Himself known and satisfies the deep longings of her heart with His esteeming love. He empowers her to do great things for His glory through her weakness.
She goes on to write in The God I Love, “Sovereignty is a weighty thing to ascribe to the nature and character of God. Yet if He were not sovereign, He would not be God. The Bible is clear that God is in control of everything that happens.”
As our faith in God’s sovereignty grows, our experi-ence of God’s peace deepens. No one can explain the full reason why everything happens. We won’t understand it all until we get to heaven. But on earth we can come to harmony with God through acceptance. Then, we can live in the wisdom of faith.
Our Model for Acceptance
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus showed us the gospel way of prayer when the day of evil or suffering arrives: “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:38–39).
Jesus wrestled with the will of God with deep emo-tion and brokenness in prayer. Like Him, our soul can be overwhelmed with anxiety, stress, or sorrow over God’s decreed or permissive will in our circumstances.
Jesus questioned God to see if it was possible not to have to drink that cup of suffering. He wrestled with this because He had to know if the cup was willed by God be-cause it was filled with injustice, evil, punishment, and God’s wrath.
After praying for the third time, Jesus knew God willed for Him to drink from that cup. Jesus then yielded to the will of the Father in the day of evil. This acceptance ended His emotional anguish and acute stress. The inner struggle was over.
Acceptance of God’s will removes mental anguish and stress. We no longer fight it, stress over it, complain, or put up mental resistance once we accept it as the will of God. We quit striving to find our way around it. A lot of mental suffering is associated with not accepting what is God’s will.
Jesus showed us how to grapple with the issue in prayer. He prayed for the cup to be removed if possi-blemore than once. He wrestled until He knew.
Then He surrendered to God’s sovereign will. After-wards, Jesus obeyed God with courage and strength one step at a time. He moved forward with conviction and faced the most intense suffering ever known.