It is in the mind that the fiercest battles usually rage.
If we let our minds become filled with negative and frightening
things we must not be surprised if we lose our peace of mind.
A person might as well complain at having bad dreams at
night if he reads a violent criminal story or watches a horror
flick before going to bed! We sometimes forget that we can fill
our minds with whatever we choose. So many seem to regard
the mind as a helpless victim of circumstance all the time; but
this is not true. If we want peace we must have our interests
and our thoughts in things of peace, beauty, possitive
affirmation, and glorious thoughts. We can delibertly choose
to fill our mind with lovely and wonderful, grateful thoughts -
by the company we keep, by habits, by books, by meetings,
by meditation, or by the movies we watch.
We usually like to arrange for the most treasured possessions
to go to those we love the most. It seems as if some desire
like that was filling the heart of the Lord Jesus the same
night that He was betrayed. "Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you, I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
The peace which surpasses all understanding is the peace
God gives to us. How wonderful His peace had always been!
In the storm on the lake He knew no agitation; before demons
He was utterly master of the situation; as for the hostile crowd,
He simply passed through it, defended by tranquillity that was
invincible.
There is a story of an old martyr who, as the fire was being lit
around him, asked the officer in charge to place his hand over
his heart. Its perfect quietness so amazed the persecutor, that
he, too, became a Christian. This peace, this divine legacy
from our Saviour, is brought into our hearts and lives as a
fruit of His indwelling Spirit. Of course it begins for us in the
place where His peace always had rested from the beginning
- in being absolutely at one with the Father. Its only true source
in our lives is in the atonement: "Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
It is "peace through the blood of His cross. This is the
beginning, but peace can and should grow.
On Nov.11, 1918, the Armistice caused the guns to be silent,
and peace took the place of war. But the nations had been
organized for war, and it took very many months for actual
conditions of peace to spread over all the lands. Great
ammunition factories had been transformed or scrapped;
and millions of soldiers had to be demobilized and gradually
drafted back into peaceful occupations. So it is with the soul:
conversion means the laying down of the arms of rebellion
and warfare with God, but there is often quite a time before
the whole being comes under the benign influence of His
peace. With many Christians such a peace never extends
beyond a sense of sins forgiven, and an assurance of pardon
at the last. Their personal lives are marked by fretfulness and
anxiety; and even in the church they are a frequent source of
disturbance and restlessness, having very little peace
themselves and distributing the tranquillity of others."Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee."
It is the picture of a mind at rest because it is filled with a
knowledge of the Almighty, and knows that He is enough for
every situation. Such peace is truly a fruit of the Spirit, for it is
His work to enlighten the eyes of our understanding to know
God in Christ.
