Freedom from Anxiety into Peace

As I was studying Philippians 4, I was struck by the sequence of the passage about anxiety.  We are exhorted to rejoice in the Lord always, not based on circumstances but simply that He is worthy to be praised always and rejoicing will gladden our hearts.  Next we are commanded not to be anxious but to trade our anxieties and worries for God's peace, we must bring Him our anxieties or worries in order to receive His peace.  The Holy Spirit highlighted that God is called "the God of peace" and it was as if I was whisked away back to Genesis and the beginning of all Creation.  As God created the heavens and the earth were in alignment and it was "good", meaning since He is the "God of peace" what He creates comes out of the peace that is in His nature.  Jesus reaffirms the alignment of heaven and earth when He says in the Lord's prayer, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven." in Matthew 6:10.  So a dimension of peace is the alignment of heaven and earth, which is what God says is "good".  I was struck by the phrase in Genesis 2:18, "Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."  In other words, God looked on His Creation which was good (at peace because it was in alignment) and saw that man did not have a companion like him, this was out of alignment since the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in continual relationship and communion.  We were designed and created in an atmosphere of peace and we were designed to live at peace our whole life.  It seems like in our modern world there is so many different forces that seek to take us out of a place of peace.  Since I struggled with anxiety it often felt like peace was something I had to work to make happen, rather than that my design and creation was to be at peace.  I was struck by another phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  New Creation means that we that "in Christ" we have be created as a whole new kind of people united to Him and Jesus is called the "Prince of Peace" in Isaiah.  Since we have been created through our union with the Prince of Peace, anxiety and worry are foreign to us as believers  We were initially created from God's nature which is peace, then sin and the Fall broke this harmony bringing noise and chaos and then God redeemed us from this place of noise and chaos through uniting us with His Son (the Prince of Peace) and then bringing us into a place of peace (Romans 5:1-2).  I began to realize that in my mind's eye, my worries and anxieties had gotten large and overwhelming but I had lost Heaven's perspective.  Scriptures like "Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God" began to come alive as I realized that it is who I am to broker peace wherever I go and not to live in anxiety and worry.  Since growing up in an environment where worry and anxiety were just "old hat" it had become an identity for me, which led to some hopeless thinking that I would ever experience continual peace in my life.  When you believe it is who you are to be anxious and worried, then peace seems as far as a dot on the horizon across a huge ocean.  In John 14 Jesus exhorts the disciples to "Not let your heart be troubled" because He is beginning to open their eyes to the reality of living in Heaven's peace and He knows that His leaving is going to tempt them to be troubled (anxious, overwhelmed, and worried) so He points to the provision He has made for them by preparing a place for each of them in the Father's house.  It is not who you are to be anxious or worry, it simply is no longer your nature.  You are now to be a broker of Heaven's peace into your kids lives, your neighbors family problems, conflicts and problems at work, and even tensions that has long existed between groups.  First, you need a revelation of who God is as the "God of peace" and the "Prince of Peace".  Next, you need a revelation of who you are taking off garments of worry, anxiety, and stress because these are not who you are.  Finally, as one united to the Prince of Peace you then can walk out your destiny of being a peacemaker.  I found the places that God delivers me from, become the very environments I step into to bring God's deliverance to others.  Love always gives, it simply is the definition of love.

A son of the God of Peace,
Bret