Seeking Peace?

Seeking Peace?

June 30, 2016
Megann Graf

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.     Philippians 4:6-9

So often, I think I spend a lot of my time wishing for peace.  Peace in my family, peace for those around me, peace in this world.  I am praying for the peace of God.  But, I have to admit that when I read the little saying in the picture, it challenged me.  Read it again, does it challenge you?  “For all that we think we desire the Lord, in actuality, it is often the peace of God we are after and not the God of peace himself.”

I think that there have probably been many days and seasons in my life, where I was simply looking for the peace of God.  I was missing out on getting more of God Himself.  Just like I find I often pray for things and forget that God’s miracles were always preceded with gifts of thanksgiving.  Thanks was given BEFORE the miracles happened.  Faith is giving thanks before actually getting your request answered.  And perhaps faith is trusting and seeking the God of peace before ever receiving the peace of God.

As much as I want peace in my life, I know that I have to want God more.  As much as I want so many of my prayers to be answered, I know that I need to give thanks for everything, just as it is.  When we do that we find God.  We find him in the middle of a family challenge, a health crisis, or a personal defeat.  We begin to see and feel and know that He is with us.  And when we see Him, we know that His peace comes along.   When our desire for God is stronger than our desire for peace, we put the control back into God’s hands.  We can leave our anxiety at His feet, because when we desire to be in His presence, when we work on seeking God and God alone, then we build trust that allows us to rely on God. 

God is not the by-product of peace.  Peace comes from God.  And the more we can focus on and think on these things He tells us are important- things that are true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable, things that are praiseworthy…things worth giving thanks for, when we learn from these things THROUGH God, then God himself, the God of peace will be with us.