“Kept in perfect peace!”
- Jan 9
- 5 min read
When we have peace with God, we can then know the peace of God.
The upward dimension must be taken care of before inward peace can permeate our lives and be lived out as a consequence.
Christ as Saviour brings peace with God
Peace with God, fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance. When Jesus came to His disciples in the upper room the evening of resurrection day, He said, “Peace be with you”; and when He had said that, “he showed unto them his hands and side” (John 20:19-20). Why did He do that? Not just to establish His identity, but to remind them that His death on the cross had made peace with His Father for them.
We must remember, before we became a Christian we were at odds with God, and God with us, but Jesus has made “peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20). It’s here that true peace with God was secured and this therefore means the true experience of the peace of God begins.
Tim Keller said, “Christianity is not about a general belief in God, and it's not about just being a generally moral person. It's about walking with God.” He went on to say, “Walking with God is not just being at peace with God, it's enjoying peace with God.”
Christ as Lord brings the peace of God
Max Lucado describes it this way: “He downloads the tranquillity of the throne room into our world, resulting in an inexplicable calm. We should be worried, but we aren’t. We should be upset, but we are comforted. The peace of God transcends all logic, scheming, and efforts to explain it.”
What an answer for troubled hearts. What a thought as we continue to know God better going into another New Year!
Imagine God coming to the market place of your life, where you are trying to find satisfaction, and He simply comes to you again, to reassure you as you go into 2026 with the words of John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
A family had put Grandma on her first plane flight, but she wasn’t at all happy about leaving the ground on it. When they met her on her return, one of the family members joked with her by asking, “Well, did the plane hold you up okay?” She grudgingly replied, “Well, yes,” and then quickly added, “But I never did put my full weight down on it!”
Many Christians are like Grandma. The truth is, they’re being sustained completely by God, but they’re afraid to put their full weight down on Him. As a result, they’re plagued by anxiety and aren’t able to know Him or enjoy Him completely.They’re not able to enter fully into what is theirs by right! Especially knowing the PEACE of God
When you think about it, we had no claim on Him but God gave Him to us. To us a child is born, to us a son is given! His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. He’s ours by right, and believe it or not, you can put your full weight down on Him!
The 'peace of God' is what we enjoy when we continue to walk by faith with Him day by day. Let’s start 2026 this way!
Philippians 4:6-7 tells us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Paul had instructed the church at Philippi not to be anxious over anything.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “It conjures up a picture. What will happen is that this peace of God will walk round the ramparts and towers of our life. We are inside, and the activities of the heart and mind are producing those stresses and anxieties and strains from the outside. But the peace of God will keep them all out and we ourselves inside will be at perfect peace.”
As recipients of God’s peace, our lives have a profound meaning and purpose.
By the way, notice what follows in verses 6-7 in Philippians 4. Allowing the peace of God to guard and keep our hearts sets a challenge to seriously consider what we think about.
Instead of worrying, Paul says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (v8).
Our whole line of thinking and being changes because of the ‘peace of God’ guarding and protecting our hearts and minds.
Dallas Willard refers to a short letter from Paternus to his son (Paternus was an early century Christian): “First of all, my child, think magnificently of God. Magnify His providence; adore His power, pray to Him frequently and incessantly. Bear Him always in your mind. Teach your thoughts to reverence Him in every place for there is no place where He is not. Therefore, my child, fear and worship and love God; first and last, think magnificently of Him! —PATERNUS, ADVICE TO A SON”
What amazing advice to a son, likewise to us at the start of this new year.
Note Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
Dallas Willard goes on to say, “We have the ability and responsibility to keep God present in our minds, and those who do so will make steady progress toward him, for he will respond by making himself known to us.”
Just be still for a while.
Did you pick up the words of the refrain?
‘Peace Holds me when I’m broken. Sweet peace that passes understanding. When the whole wide world is crashing down, I fall to my knees and breathe in Your peace.’
Just do that!
Max Lucado tells of a young man who approached his pastor at the close of a worship service and asked, “What can I do to find peace in my life?” The wise minister replied, “I’m sorry, but you’re too late.” The distraught man was perplexed. He said, “You mean I’m too late to find peace? You mean I’m too late to be saved?” The pastor answered, “No, you’re just too late to do anything about it. Jesus did everything that needed to be done 2000 years ago.”
The beauty of God’s grace is that Christ did it all!
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18).
We must simply embrace it!
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way” (2 Thess 3:16).
Henri Nouwen said, “For those who have heard the voice of the first love and said yes to it, the downward-moving way of Jesus is the way to the joy and the peace of God, a joy and peace that is not of this world.”
May you truly know the 'peace of God' in your heart today as you continue to move into 2026?
Pray
‘Father God, I come before you with a heart burdened and restless. Help me to cast my anxieties upon you and to trust in your perfect peace. Father, as I move into 2026 calm the storms within me and fill me with the assurance of your presence. Grant me the inner peace that surpasses all understanding.
Heavenly Father, thank you for a peace that the world cannot give, a peace that comes from You and You alone.’ Amen.
There are days I sit and breathe in Jesus. Now I am starting to breath in the peace of Jesus. I visualise locking it in my heart.
Beautiful words to both songs, I have not heard them before.