You Can Have Peace

In preparing for the freedom from fear and stress class I am teaching, I was thinking about living a life of peace through trusting in the Lord. The thought of keeping my cares on Him has been coming to me the last couple of days.

It doesn’t come automatically or easily to have peace in a world filled with troubles and anxieties. Sometime it takes time going over the Scriptures on the subject and it also takes face to face time with the Lord, time giving Him the things that cause you anxiety and rob you of peace, time taking His thoughts and His presence into yourself to replace the thoughts that are causing your stress.

There is a face to face connection and fellowship needed for this. To fully trust Him, have to know that He is trustworthy. You have to know what He is like. You learn about what God is like from His Word, and you also get to know Him better by spending time with Him. See my article on the getting to know the character of God.

Casting your cares on the Lord releases them to Him and releases Him to come into your life and situation and work things out for you while you trust in Him.

Your part is TRUST. His part is to work things out. If you anxiously try to work things out, you are in His way; you are blocking Him from helping you as He desires, and you are keeping yourself from the peace He paid the price for you to have. The chastisement for your peace was upon Him, and by His stripes you are healed. YOU CAN live a life of peace, but you have to do it His way.

John 16:33; 14:1 (Amplified) – I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] Do not let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.

The world is full of trouble, tribulation, trials, distress and frustration. But Jesus has overcome it all. So in Him you can have peace. But you have your part to play in living in peace. It is far from automatic. What is your part? DO NOT LET YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED. Instead trust in Him and believe in Him.

Isaiah 26:3-4 (Amplified) – You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].

You will only have peace to the degree your mind is stayed on Him and that you are trusting confidently in Him. You will not have peace if your mind is stayed on your troubles or anxieties. There is a relaxing involved in trust that releases the tension and anxiety and rests, trusting in the Lord. Part of trust is leaning, leaning on the Lord.

This verse in the Amplified Bible gives some steps to peace: trust in the Lord, commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, lean confidently in Him. Only in doing these things will you enjoy the peace.

Psalm 37:5 (Amplified) – Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.

Again, your part is to commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him, and it is His part to bring it to pass. Notice your part is two steps. Commit to Him. But that isn’t enough, you must also TRUST in Him. If you do your part, He is certain to do His part. If you get the parts mixed up, He will not be able to bring to pass the things you desire and need. And you will certainly not enjoy peace.

1 Peter 5:7 (Amplified) – Casting the whole of your care (all your anxieties, all your worries, all you concerns, once and for all) on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

The key here to successfully getting your cares to stay on Him lies in the end of the verse, “because He cares for you.” If you don’t know how much He actually cares for you and that He will actually take care of you and the things that concern you, you can’t rest and trust in Him and let go of you cares, and they will keep coming back.

Having your heart firmly fixed trusting in the Lord is what enables you to live fear-free. If you aren’t convinced He will take care of you, you feel you have to do it yourself.

It is passing your cares onto the Lord (through prayer and praise, through exchanging your anxious thoughts for truths from His Word) – by looking to Him and fixing your mind on Him. It involves actually trusting Him from your heart, releasing the weight of these things onto Him – because you really and truly know how much He loves you and therefore that He will actually do something about your problems.

Casting your cares on the Lord involves a trading of your present anxious thoughts with thoughts of Him, of His love, His care, His character and His sure promises. But it is at more than a superficial level. You must replace the thoughts at the level of your heart. That sometimes takes time. Sometimes to be fully assured of His love and care even takes years. But taking the time to do this is not as hard as struggling to believe and make your cares stay on Him – year after year after year, until you finally just give up.

You don’t just struggle trying to not think anxious thoughts. That isn’t your focus. Taking hold of Him and focusing your mind on Him will force the cares out.

You can get rid of cares at any time by taking the time, effort and concentration to enter His presence through praise and worship and letting your mind focus on Him rather than the problems. And you can totally change your life by coming to know and believe His love and mercy and willingness to hear you and help at every time of need.

First step to a worry-free life: GET TO KNOW Him! Fix your mind on His love and care for you.

Second step to a worry free life: BELIEVE He is as good as He says and will do all that He promised – for you.

Then as a natural result, you will trust in Him and will naturally entrust all of the cares of your life on Him. And when you do, things will go much better for you, and you will live a life of peace instead of continual stress and anxiety.

In conclusion follow the instructions given by the Apostle Paul.

Philippians 4:6-8 (Amplified) – Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].

Your Part:

Do not have anxiety about anything.
Instead Pray in every circumstance and in everything – WITH THANKSGIVING.
Guard your thoughts, fix your mind on things that are true, worthy of reverence, honorable, pure, lovely, kind and gracious, any virtue and excellence or worthy of praise.

His Part: