Overcoming The Thieves Of Joy

v. 7: The peace of God

v. 9: The God of peace.

What an interesting contrast there, right?

We can also think of it like this: applying what we’ve discussed so far, when you have the God of peace in your life, then the peace of God will guide your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

And what I love about this section of our text today, is that we get a list of 5 ingredients to look at – a prescription for the peace of God if you will.

v. 4 – Paul says to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.

v. 5 – Let your reasonableness (or in other translations the word there is “moderation”) to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

v. 6 – do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

There it is. In these three verses we get 5 things for the peace of God. 5 prescriptions for the peace of God.

So what are these?

Ingredient #1: Be Joyful, Always

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” - Philippians 4:4 (ESV)

I wouldn’t blame you at all if you’re sitting there right now thinking, “That’s way easier said than done, Austin.” And my response to you would be this, “I know. I’m just as human as you are.” But again, we have an imperative here. Paul doesn’t give us an option. There’s no qualifier there of something like, “If everything in life seems to be going well, go ahead and rejoice in the Lord.” It doesn’t matter if things are down and you think, “I don’t feel like rejoicing. You don’t know what’s going on in my life. It’s easy for you just sit up there and tell me to be happy. Preacher boy.” Well – it’s not my words.

Here’s how to think about it: rejoice in the Lord – not your circumstances. One more thing to remember: don’t confuse joy with happiness. Happiness is circumstantial. Remember the verse where Jesus promises that all believers will no longer experience sorrow? Yeah, me either. Christianity doesn’t immune us from the hardships of life. If anything, it’s the opposite. So again, happiness is circumstantial. Joy, however, is the fruit of the Spirit, it’s a well springing up from within. Joy isn’t based on external, outward, and fleeting circumstances. It springs up from within by the God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And thank God for that, because that means that nothing in this world can give that joy to you – and therefore nothing in this world can take that joy away.

Remember, these words of joy and rejoicing come from Paul while he’s in chains.

Ingredient #2: Be Gentle

“Let your reasonableness (or in other translations the word there is “moderation”) be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.” - Philippians 4:5 (ESV)

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Let’s stop right there. The word “reasonableness” in the Greek is the word ?p?e???? (epieikes) means gentleness, patience, or moderation. Be gentle. Be reasonable. Be patient. Do you see what Paul is saying here? These things, reasonableness, gentleness, patience, are all closely related to joy. And that’s because it’s when we have joy, when our hearts are singing God’s praise, we’re so much less likely to be harsh and quick-tempered. Have you ever had to deal with someone and thought, “they’re just so unreasonable. Don’t look at the person next to you right now. I know some of you are probably reading thinking, "My husband! He’s like playing tennis against a wall. So stubborn.”