Peace in His Presence

Philippians 4:1-4, 7

Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

Not that Paul had no stress or worries; rather, he had plenty. He opens the book with a prayer for his fellow laborers in the Gospel who were dear to him. When you have done everything you can at this point and you now cannot, "cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you" as in Psalm 55:22. At this point, Paul was imprisoned for his faith and could do nothing about the church or those dear to him from where he was.

I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

There was a feud between two Godly ladies and a church that he dearly missed. At this point, it makes absolutely no sense to tell anyone to rejoice. In the words of some doctors of modern times, are you nuts or have you totally lost your mind. In fact, rejoicing in such situations makes as much sense as expecting something that you cannot see but can only feel in faith by Hebrews 11:1.

And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

The gospel of Christ is seen as a stumbling block and an offense; to the wise it seems as madness in 1 Peter 2:8. Notice we do not just laugh hysterically or find things to feel good about. Paul is not preaching Psychology 101 on how to always be happy. The text says, "rejoice in the Lord." The whom or what are we to rejoice in is the Lord. We see the object of our joy is Christ because we know whom we serve. We know what his power can do to change our lives and circumstances. We know him and the power of his resurrection; he gave us everything we needed for life and godliness according to Philippians 3:10. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" in Proverbs 9:10; the knowledge and presence of God is the fullness of joy. We have gentleness in the face of trials, not because you are a victim or have given up, but because the Lord is near. If only you had the eyes of Elisha's servant to see the hosts of Heaven mixed between the enemy surrounding them in 2 Kings 6:16-17. Philippians 4:5 states, "the Lord is near." Again, the Word says "the angel of the Lord" camps around those who fear him to deliver them in Psalm 34:7. Some of you are expecting an ignoring or a judgment of God. What you need to be expecting is the joy of the Lord and a renewed viewpoint of his deliverance. Gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Nor does this fruit come alone. The poking and prodding of trials work patience; this brings out the rest of the spiritual fruits in James 1:3. The personality of the spirit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness," and faith in Galatians 5:22. When you see these, you know he is near. This is like the perfume that clothes some people. We know that God camps around his people to deliver them in Psalm 34:7. In addition, the life we "now live in the flesh" we live in the grace of the Son of God as in Galatians 2:20. All this says that his Spirit lives inside you.

You might walk through the fiery furnace like the three children of the Hebrews as Daniel 3:25 states; just know, the fourth is right there with and inside you. Romans 10:8 says the Word is in you even "in your mouth and in your heart." The Word refers to Jesus who was made flesh "and dwelt among us" in John 1:14. Anxiety has no place in the presence of Christ. Trauma has no place in his presence for there is the fullness of joy. If you cannot add even a cubit to your stature in Matthew 6:27, worry is futile. Complaining is useless. If the world in Revelation 20:11 fled before his face, I think your problems will too. God is a good father. If you were given stones and scorpions, as in Luke 11:11-13, they were not from him. What Father refuses to give his children good things. Some of you need to get in his presence about your situation like the disciples did in the boat of Mark 4:35-41. They said 'Lord, do you not care we are about to drown with a raging storm about to sink the boat.' He woke up, rebuked their storm, and their lack of faith. But really, it takes great faith to wake up the Maker of the storm and say to him, 'do you not care about us?' He really does. His response is to set his peace as a watchdog over you and your situation. Maybe his peace indicates the situation is fixed. Maybe his peace is just his presence watching you go through it. Maybe his peace is walking through the valley of the shadow of death with you to meet you on the other side as in Psalm 23:4. But "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" according to Romans 8:37.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace of his presence will keep us from all harm in it, from it, and through it. Notice the guarded heart and mind. The mind is the seat of the will, and the heart is the seat of the desires. God promised to keep both if we fix our eyes and life on him. Does not God care about what we want, about our dreams, and the ones for whom we care. Yes, for this is the God who feeds the lions before they roar to him for food, clothes the lilies of the field who do nothing for it, or knits our parts together before time when we could not do anything about it but be known. Rest assured he has got you. Seeing this, it makes no sense to complain or be negative about the process. You just asked God to help you with the situation in the preceding verse; in the spiritual world he already has even if it is not yet worked out in the natural. Tell me, what sense does it make to complain, fuss, and argue. A mind fixed on Christ has no room for anything else.