. . . whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises
. . . whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises
The word of God speaks much about the peace that the believer in Christ is supposed to experience. Peace is one of the great and precious promises of the scriptures. Jesus Himself, as He was about to leave this world and return to the Father, left a promise of peace to His followers.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Jesus said that He was leaving His peace with them, not a peace that the world can give, but a heavenly peace, the very same peace that He Himself walked in. Where does this peace come from? How do we get it into our lives? Well, the first and most obvious way of obtaining it is through receiving Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Peace with ourselves and peace in our life starts with gaining peace with God. And that is obtained through being justified by faith. What does that mean? It means being made righteous, or justified, by faith in the name of Jesus and in the blood of Jesus. It is through believing that the blood of Jesus paid the price for our sins that we can be set free from those sins and be able to stand blameless before God by accepting His free gift of righteousness in Christ. We make ourselves to be no longer His enemy, but we make peace with Him. And that’s the beginning of peace in our life. We must turn our hearts toward God to have His divine peace. And the Bible promises that He will keep us in that peace.
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
The word “stayed” in this verse means leaning upon or supported by. The mind that is leaning upon the Lord is kept in perfect peace. In other words, that person is not trusting in his own ability to think through things and come up with a solution to his problems, but he is trusting in the Lord to take care of things.
The word translated in this verse as “trust” is a word that means to be confident in, but it also means to feel safe. You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is leaning on You and not on himself, because He feels safe in You. To trust in God is to let ourselves feel safe in Him. That's trust.
Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
In this verse we are exhorted to allow peace to rule in us and to lead us in all we do. It is something the Lord has called us to. As we learn to follow that which gives us peace in our heart, we learn to go the way the Lord desires for us to go, the way of peace. He wants to lead us in the way that is always full of His peace.
Part of living in peace involves knowing how to put away from us those things that cause our hearts to be troubled or anxious or fearful. The Bible deals with this very specifically and tells us how to do it, and also gives us a promise of divine peace as a result.
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Be careful for nothing. In other words, do not be troubled or anxious or worried about anything. That sounds like a good idea. But how do we do that? We do it by going to God in prayer and making our requests known to Him. That's exactly what it says to do. And once we have done that, we leave those cares and worries and problems with Him.
And the promise is that if we will do that, then the peace of God, which is beyond human understanding, will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Once we learn to cast our cares upon the Lord and to trust in Him to keep us in every situation of life, peace becomes a part of our life in an ongoing and ever-growing way. We learn to stay in His peace, to live in His peace, and even to sleep in His peace.
Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.