Today has not been a peaceful day. In fact, it's been the quite opposite - full of frustration, strife, rudeness, and ... I am weary of it. I am drained. I am still battling off grouchiness, to be honest. And yet, in the back of my mind all day long, I've had two verses: Romans 12:18 (Do your best to live at peace with everyone - my paraphrase) and Philippians 4:7 (which is preceded by the verse about "Do not be anxious for anything" and basically says that God's peace which surpasses all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus). I didn't feel either of those verses really working out for me today, but I decided to look into them when I got home ... and I am astonished. Whenever I've thought of peace in the past, I've thought of it as a passive, submitted, not arguing. You keep the peace in a household by compromising, cooling down, and letting the other person think they're right ... right? That's not the kind of peace that the Bible talks about!
Philippians 4:7, in the King James Version, says, "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Sounds pretty much like I thought. But then, I looked at the Strong's definition of the word "keep" - and it completely transformed how I see this verse. In the Strong's definition of "keep," it says, "to be a watcher in advance, that is to mount guard as a sentinel (post spies at gates); figuratively, to hem in, protect: - keep (with a garrison)." Do you get that? The peace of God is a watcher in advance for us, seeing the circumstances coming our way and battling them off. It is a guard for us. To help you understand how this goes off on the inside of me, picture a security guard in front of the President of the United States. Is this guard the wimpiest, string-bean in the class? Is the guard the one who knits every night before bed, bakes and is otherwise described as "artistic?" Heck no! Guards are superhumanly muscular. They are armed and dangerous, alert for threats of any nature, prepared to step in front of any weapon designed to destroy their boss. They are trained to take down a threat when they see one - to tackle, incapacitate, even kill, if necessary. And that is how peace "keeps" our hearts and minds. Whoa. Furthermore, the Strong's definition describes it as a "spy at the gate" of our lives. It is listening and noticing everything that comes in the gates of our lives - and is ready to protect us from those too - if we'll let it. The enemy may not always see Peace - but it's there, spying out the territory, preparing to move us into God's victory without incident. What a powerful image!
And as if this weren't enough to get us a little stirred up and happy at the aggressive way which peace will safeguard our thoughts and our inner tranquility in Christ - I went on to read in Romans 16:20 that, "The God of peace will shortly squash the Devil under your feet" (Cotton patch paraphrase). The God of peace will squash ... that doesn't even sound right when you read it out loud. The God of peace will squash something? If we think of peace as passive, this verse is an oxymoron, an enigma, a confusing piece of Scripture. However, if we think of peace as a passionate, powerful Guardian of our lives - it begins to make sense. The Devil is a threat, a trespasser, a coward strapped with bombs of derision, devisiveness, unsubmittedness, bitterness, and all manner of other evils, prepared to create catastrophe in our lives at any moment - but He can't get past the security system God has in place. The Guard of Peace will take him down to keep us safe and progressing in God's perfect plan for us, to keep us fully functioning to build the Kingdom of God. Now that makes a little more sense, don't you think? :)
Oh, and check this out - Romans 12:18, the verse about living at peace with those around us, in the Cotton Patch says, "If it's possible - that is, from your side - WAGE PEACE WITH ALL MANKIND (capitalization is there in that translation - I didn't add it)." So peace is something aggressive - all the way around. We must be aggressive about remaining in peace with people, about keeping our inner peace. We have to be aggressive and wage a war on all the things the Enemy would send at us to distract us from our calling and get us all wrought up, instead of trusting God.
Never in my life have I thought of peace as so aggressive ... and yet, as I think over familiar Scriptures like Isaiah 9:6 which calls Christ the "Prince of Peace," it begins to make sense why the next verse begins with, "His power will never end; peace will last forever ...". I mean, Christ is not a wimpy Prince. Read Revelation for goodness' sake! He is a Warrior! He is our Rescuing Knight (Psalm 18:2, Message)! He is not a wimpy, passive Prince! Therefore peace cannot be wimpy or passive either. For how would He keep His power, if peace were wimpy? How would he, as John 16:33 says, have defeated the world? It can't happen! God is a God of a powerful peace, of a peace that guards our hearts militantly, and if want to walk in all that God has for us in Psalm 112 (verses 6-7, especially, that say nothing will trouble us) - we must become belligerent about what we allow to steal our peace. We must activate the Guardian of Peace, as Philippians 4:6 says, by choosing not worry about anything, but in all our prayers ask God for what we need, always asking him with a thankful heart (GNB). That is the key to receiving verse seven - and a vicious, undeniable peace that will not accept anything but absolute victory.
Philippians 4:7, in the King James Version, says, "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Sounds pretty much like I thought. But then, I looked at the Strong's definition of the word "keep" - and it completely transformed how I see this verse. In the Strong's definition of "keep," it says, "to be a watcher in advance, that is to mount guard as a sentinel (post spies at gates); figuratively, to hem in, protect: - keep (with a garrison)." Do you get that? The peace of God is a watcher in advance for us, seeing the circumstances coming our way and battling them off. It is a guard for us. To help you understand how this goes off on the inside of me, picture a security guard in front of the President of the United States. Is this guard the wimpiest, string-bean in the class? Is the guard the one who knits every night before bed, bakes and is otherwise described as "artistic?" Heck no! Guards are superhumanly muscular. They are armed and dangerous, alert for threats of any nature, prepared to step in front of any weapon designed to destroy their boss. They are trained to take down a threat when they see one - to tackle, incapacitate, even kill, if necessary. And that is how peace "keeps" our hearts and minds. Whoa. Furthermore, the Strong's definition describes it as a "spy at the gate" of our lives. It is listening and noticing everything that comes in the gates of our lives - and is ready to protect us from those too - if we'll let it. The enemy may not always see Peace - but it's there, spying out the territory, preparing to move us into God's victory without incident. What a powerful image!
And as if this weren't enough to get us a little stirred up and happy at the aggressive way which peace will safeguard our thoughts and our inner tranquility in Christ - I went on to read in Romans 16:20 that, "The God of peace will shortly squash the Devil under your feet" (Cotton patch paraphrase). The God of peace will squash ... that doesn't even sound right when you read it out loud. The God of peace will squash something? If we think of peace as passive, this verse is an oxymoron, an enigma, a confusing piece of Scripture. However, if we think of peace as a passionate, powerful Guardian of our lives - it begins to make sense. The Devil is a threat, a trespasser, a coward strapped with bombs of derision, devisiveness, unsubmittedness, bitterness, and all manner of other evils, prepared to create catastrophe in our lives at any moment - but He can't get past the security system God has in place. The Guard of Peace will take him down to keep us safe and progressing in God's perfect plan for us, to keep us fully functioning to build the Kingdom of God. Now that makes a little more sense, don't you think? :)
Oh, and check this out - Romans 12:18, the verse about living at peace with those around us, in the Cotton Patch says, "If it's possible - that is, from your side - WAGE PEACE WITH ALL MANKIND (capitalization is there in that translation - I didn't add it)." So peace is something aggressive - all the way around. We must be aggressive about remaining in peace with people, about keeping our inner peace. We have to be aggressive and wage a war on all the things the Enemy would send at us to distract us from our calling and get us all wrought up, instead of trusting God.
Never in my life have I thought of peace as so aggressive ... and yet, as I think over familiar Scriptures like Isaiah 9:6 which calls Christ the "Prince of Peace," it begins to make sense why the next verse begins with, "His power will never end; peace will last forever ...". I mean, Christ is not a wimpy Prince. Read Revelation for goodness' sake! He is a Warrior! He is our Rescuing Knight (Psalm 18:2, Message)! He is not a wimpy, passive Prince! Therefore peace cannot be wimpy or passive either. For how would He keep His power, if peace were wimpy? How would he, as John 16:33 says, have defeated the world? It can't happen! God is a God of a powerful peace, of a peace that guards our hearts militantly, and if want to walk in all that God has for us in Psalm 112 (verses 6-7, especially, that say nothing will trouble us) - we must become belligerent about what we allow to steal our peace. We must activate the Guardian of Peace, as Philippians 4:6 says, by choosing not worry about anything, but in all our prayers ask God for what we need, always asking him with a thankful heart (GNB). That is the key to receiving verse seven - and a vicious, undeniable peace that will not accept anything but absolute victory.
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