Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Phil 4:5 Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
Phil 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
Phil 4:9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.
This past week I was watching the news and saw a report of a robbery at a convenience store. The thieves didn’t use a gun, one of them heaved a fire extinguisher at the face of the clerk, knocking him out cold.
My father-in-law was over this past week and he shared with me how someone drove their truck into the home of one of his neighbors. They had just moved into the home and now it has been condemned by the county until they can get it repaired.
Yesterday, I met a man getting out of his car very slowly; both his knees had braces on them. I asked how he was doing and he said, “not well.” I asked him “Why?” He answered, “My knees are busted up so bad I can barely walk.” I told him that God was still good and encouraged him to thank the Lord for that. I went on to tell him about my daughter Precious who, in her thirties, has cerebral palsy and cannot walk and has to be tube fed, etc.
A little over two weeks ago, a fourth-grader at Linton Springs Elementary School in Eldersburg, became ill on a Saturday and died Sunday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Blood cultures confirmed that she was infected with bacterial meningitis.
Some years ago I was sitting in my car in front of my mother’s house—the home where I spent part of my life. I looked down the street and saw Mr. Casey’s house, the one with the lawn that used to be well manicured. It wasn’t any more. Tall grass and weeds had grown over the sidewalk that was once razor straight. Mr. Casey had Alzheimer’s disease. He used to be a man on the go-- always working on some project.
At that time his wife lived alone in their split-level home and made daily visits to the nursing home. As I got out of my car and walked towards my mother’s house I noticed the words on the rear window of my brother’s truck, “LYF SUKS”.
It is not hard to dwell on the crime, wars, tsunamis, evil politics, divorce, sickness, death and the dishonesty of deceitful people and find yourself coming to the same conclusion: Life Sucks.
The Apostle Paul, who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote the letter to the Phillipian church, had his share of trials and tribulations. In 2 Corinthians, Paul lets his readers in on some of what he had been going through as he went around preaching and teaching the Word of God:
Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. (2 Cor 11:25-28)
The Apostle Paul wrote Philippians from a Roman jail. He was a prisoner of Nero, the man who used Christians as human torches to light up the city of Rome at night. Paul had heaven to look forward to, but had to go through the valley of the shadow of death to get there. He knew he would eventually be executed for preaching the Word of God.
Taking all this and more into consideration, the apostle Paul could have written to the Phillipian believers, “After contemplating my hellish experiences, the deplorable condition of the local church and my certain demise, I have come to the conclusion that life sucks.”
But he didn’t. He wrote: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Paul encouraged his readers to rejoice! Once?, twice? NO!!! ALWAYS!!!
When they felt like it? When something good happens to them? NO!!! ALWAYS!!!
When they were in church; when only around fellow Christians? NO!!! ALWAYS!!!
And if they still hadn’t gotten the point, Paul puts emphasis on it with a second exhortation—“Again I say REJOICE!”
Paul is giving his readers a prescription for the peace of God even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Even when tragedy comes, even when you look around and all you can see for miles is hurt and pain you and I can experience the very peace of God.
How can one experience the peace of God? We have already learned step one: Rejoice!
The tense of the Greek in verse four lets the reader know that a “constant state of rejoicing” is what Paul is speaking of here. Wuest translates it “Be rejoicing in the Lord always. Again I say, be rejoicing.”
The word “rejoice” has the idea of cultivating an attitude of joy, maintaining a spirit of joy, incessant joy, independent joy that does not depend upon circumstances.
Most of us are happy when we have money, when things are going our way… But this is a joy that is dependent on how well things are going for you.
But Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord,” not in your circumstances. You can't always rejoice in your circumstances but you can always rejoice in the Lord and in the privilege you have of being His child.
“Rejoicing constantly” is the first step for experiencing the peace of God.
The second step is found in verse five: Paul is saying in our text, “Let your forbearing (or patient/gentle) spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.”
This word is used in other places in Scripture:
1 Tim 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
Titus 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.
James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
How do you let you make your gentle spirit known to all men? Do you go around announcing to everyone, “Hey ya’ll, I have a gentle spirit.” “I am patient.”
No, you let everyone know you have a gentle spirit by the way you act and react.
For example, you are to display a “gentle spirit” with people who would normally irritate you. You are to be “patient” with people who normally pluck your last nerve.
You are not only to be gentle and patient with people, but with situations and circumstances. You do not fall out when something doesn’t go your way. You do not fly off the handle when something bad happens.
In verse five Paul lets us know the key to being a “gentle” person. He teaches that this attitude is possible in those who have a heavenly perspective.
Paul writes, “Let your forbearing (or patient/gentle) spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.”
It is the soon return of Jesus that helps you to have a patient and gentle spirit. A gentle spirit belongs to those who are constantly nourished with the assurance that “one day Jesus will come and take me out of this mess”.
You have some people who appear to have a gentle spirit but they are time bombs waiting to go off. They are just waiting for the right stimuli to set them off—the right spark to ignite their fuse.
Ever so often we hear on the news reports of crimes committed by people whose neighbors say, “He was the sweetest guy” or “She was the nicest person; I wouldn’t have imagined she could do a thing like that.”
Having a gentle spirit is not as much as burying your anger or suppressing your rage as it is replacing it with something else. That something else is the hope of the return of your Savior.
Jesus is coming. He is coming to take Christians to Heaven to be with Him eternally!
John 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
A little later in this chapter Jesus would say,
John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
1 Cor 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;
1 Cor 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Th 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1 Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Jesus is going to return one day and the song says, “Soon and Very Soon, We’re Going to See the King! He is coming to get us! We will be changed! This is the blessed hope; our hope!
This is how the Christian can contain himself when trouble comes; when people rub him the wrong way. This is how the Christian can tolerate difficult people and trying situations because he knows that soon and very soon, we are going to see the King!
You and I can experience the peace of God by first making a conscious effort to “rejoice” even when we don’t feel like it. It is an act of the will.
The second way we experience the peace of God is by dwelling on the hope that will one day appear when Jesus cracks the sky.
In verse 6, Paul gives us a third way we can experience the peace of God. He writes, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Paul begins verse six by telling his readers “not to worry about anything.” As he wrote this he may have been thinking about what Jesus said in Matthew 6:
"Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'
"For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
Paul’s teaching aligns with Jesus’ words: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Like Jesus, Paul was saying “Don’t worry, instead pray” because your loving, heavenly Father knows what you have need of.
What is worry? The Greek word translated “anxious” (careful) in Philippians 4:6 means “to be pulled in different directions.” Think about the last time you worried about something. Your emotions pulled you in different directions!
“Should I do this; should I do that?”
“They’re going to offer me the job…No their not; I don’t think they like me”
“I’m going to get all my bills paid this month....What if something happens that requires more money?”
Our hopes pull us in one direction; our fears pull us the opposite direction; and we are pulled apart!
The Old English root from which we get our word “worry” means “to strangle.” If you have ever really worried, you know how it tends to strangle a person! In fact, worry has physical consequences: headaches, neck pains, ulcers, even back pains. Worry affects our thinking, our digestion, and even our coordination.
From the spiritual point of view, worry is wrong thinking (the mind) and wrong feeling (the heart) about circumstances, people, and things. Thus Paul encourages us to change our focus. Worry is “me focused,” it is “circumstance focused,” it is “thing focused.”
Paul is telling us, “Be anxious for nothing; take it to the Lord in prayer.” This reminds me of a song:
What a friend we have in Je-sus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a priv-i-lege to car-ry Ev-ery-thing to God in prayer!
O what peace we of-ten for-feit, O what need-less pain we bear,
All be-cause we do not car-ry Ev-ery-thing to God in prayer!
Have we tri-als and temp-ta-tions? Is there trou-ble an-y where?
We should nev-er be dis-cour-aged; Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends des-pise, for-sake thee?Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee; Thou wilt find a sol-ace there.
Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing, take it to the Lord in prayer” then he tells us three ways we can talk to God—“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (vs. 6)
Prayer. This is the general word we use for making our requests known to the Lord. It carries the idea of adoration, devotion, and worship. Whenever we find ourselves worrying, the first thing we need to do is get alone with God and worship Him. Adoration is what is needed at this time. We must see the greatness and majesty of God! We must come to the realization that He is big enough to handle all of our problems.
Supplication. This is an earnest sharing of our needs and problems with God. This is the way Jesus prayed in the Garden (Heb. 5:7). While His closest disciples were sleeping, Jesus was sweating great drops of blood! Supplication is not a matter of carnal energy but of spiritual intensity (Rom. 15:30; Col. 4:12).
Rom 15:30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
Thanksgiving. This is when the Father’s children say, “Thank You!” When Jesus healed ten who had leprosy, only one of the ten returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11-19), and things haven’t changed that much since then. We are eager to ask but slow to appreciate.
Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing; talk to God.” He is letting us know that the solution to anxiety is a child-like dependency on the God the Father.
In verse 7 of our text, Paul writes that the result of prayer, supplication and thanksgiving is peace.
Phil 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Phil 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines this peace as a “sense of well-being and fulfillment that comes from God and is dependent on His presence”.
When a thunderstorm is brewing, it seems that all my children like to huddle up wherever mom and dad are. You would think that they believed the thunderclouds knew well not to unleash their fury wherever mom and dad are. But in reality, the storm really doesn’t care—you would know this is true if you have ever seen me run from the car to the house in a storm!
But what Paul is trying to get us to know is that there is something about being in the presence of the Lord that quells the fears of His children. And the exciting thing is that while the storm doesn’t give a hoot about mom and dad, it obeys the Word our Heavenly Father!
Wasn’t it Jesus who spoke to the storm and said “peace be still!”? (Mark 4:39) Does the Psalmist say, “He calms the storm, So that its waves are still.” (Psa 107:29)
We have a Heavenly Father that is more than capable of calming the storms in our lives but the key is being in His presence. The Psalmist says, “… In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psa 16:11)
This is what “rejoicing always” is all about. It is being in the presence of the Lord constantly.
This is exactly what Paul encouraged the Thessalonian believers to do at the end of his first letter to them:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Th 5:16-18)
So Paul continues in our text to let us know what the peace of God will do:
Phil 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This peace “surpasses all comprehension”, that is, it assures us that God is in control even in the midst of difficult circumstances. The human soul and spirit has the natural tendency to always make an attempt to reason things out or to find an explanation for what happens.
We always try to figure out the “Why?”
Why did he leave me? Why did I lose my job? Why am I having all these problems?
Paul writes that the “peace of God, …surpasses all understanding…” The NIV says it “transcends” all understanding.”
When we were in the process of making an offer on our church property the Lord moved me to offer terms of sale that could have been considered an insult to the owner. The real estate agent thought we were either crazy or rude because the amount we offered was a third less than what the property listed for and we didn’t have much money so we also asked the owner to finance our down payment.
I sensed in my spirit this was the right thing to do—I sensed God’s peace about it. The peace of God transcends all understanding.
Even when the odds are against us, we trust God!
Even when the math doesn’t work, we trust God!
Even when the naysayers naysay, we trust God!
Even when the diagnosis doesn’t look good, we trust God!
Even when they have left, never to return, we trust God!
The word “surpass” or “transcend” comes the Greek word, huperecho, hoop-er-ekh'-o; and means, “to hold oneself above” or “to excel.” It is translated in other places in the Bible to mean, “superior, better, higher, and supreme.”
This means that the “peace of God” is better or higher than understanding. Sometimes “human reasoning” gets in the way of just trusting God; trying to “figure things out” shoves God out of the way.
1 Corinthians 1:21 says, “the world through wisdom did not know God…”
But Paul is letting us know that the peace of God, while not answering our questions, gives us a calm assurance that God is in total control; He knows everything. Nothing slips by God.
Paul also tells us that this peace will guard our hearts and minds. The word “guard” means that this peace will place a sentinel or a fortress around your thoughts and feelings to keep them from getting out of control.
On the Focus on the family radio program this week, they were talking about the late Corrie Ten Boom.
Corrie Ten Boom was told that she had cancer and needed to consider starting chemotherapy. She said she had to pray about it because she had to decide whether she wanted to see God sooner or wait for a while.
This was the peace of God in action!
Paul says this peace will guard your heart—it will guard your emotions—how you feel things.
This peace will guard your mind---that is, how you process things.
It will guard your disposition-- how you perceive things.
One can experience the peace of God by “Rejoicing constantly;” this is the first step in living in the peace of God.
The second step is by letting “your patient or gentle spirit be known to all men.” A gentle spirit is produced in the believer who has the hope that one day Jesus will return to take him out of this mess.
The third step in experiencing the peace of God is prayer. Paul said, “Don’t worry, just pray” because your loving, heavenly Father knows what you have need of.
Fourthly. If you want to experience the peace of God, Paul offers another spiritual principle to follow:
(Phil 4:8 NASB) Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
Up to this point Paul has hinted that the battle is in the mind. Someone has said, “Whatever you are thinking and contemplating is reality for you in that moment of time.” I believe that the arena in which Satan plans his strategy is the thought life of the individual. If he can make a person believe his suggestions or even perceive them, he has won.
This is why Paul writes the following to the believers in Corinth whose church was plagued with carnality,
(2 Cor 10:5 NASB) We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
This lets us know there is a battle going on in our minds. This battle proceeds as Satan introduces thoughts into our minds and we form speculations based upon those thoughts.
Then there are the thoughts that Satan has nothing to do with.
We form suppositions based upon how we feel.
We react to insecurities that have been born and breed in us through negative experiences.
We have a knowledge base or a “memory bank” that contains both truth and error.
My father died when he was 46 years old. As I got older I began to experience this simmering notion that I would not see my 46th birthday. When I turned 47 this year I realized how I had robbed myself of peace for all that time.
Before leaving my job to serve full time at New Vision I was a systems analyst. I used to write computer programs. If I wrote a program with thousands of lines of code and the syntax was incorrect-- that is, if I had a period somewhere instead of a comma, the program would not run or give me bad output.
The principal is the same for the Christian mind-- “Garbage in; Garbage out.”
To experience the peace of God one must be reading, meditating and memorizing God’s Book, the Bible.
(Psa 119:165 NASB) Those who love Thy law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.
Paul writes in our text, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” (Phil 4:8 NASB)
As a programmer, when I had bad output, I would meticulously go through my program and look for errors. When I found a bad line of code I would substitute with a good line of code and recompile.
This is what Paul wants his readers to do. He wants them to get rid of the “bad code” and swap it with the good code. He encourages his readers to think on six kinds of things that honor Christ.
Whatever is true.
Dr. Walter Cavert reported a survey on worry that indicated that only 8 percent of the things people worried about were legitimate matters of concern! The other 92 percent were either imaginary, never happened, or involved matters over which the people had no control anyway.
In Genesis chapter three, after God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Satan comes to Eve and asks, “Did God really say…?” Whenever we believe a lie, Satan takes over!
Satan is the liar. John 8:44 tells us that he is the father of lies. 2 Corinthians tells us he wants to corrupt our minds with his lies.
2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted (or led astray) from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The devil tries to control our minds through his lies but the Holy Spirit controls our minds through truth (John 17:17; 1 John 5:6).
1 John 5:6 - “… it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.”
The best way to fortify our minds against Satan’s deception is with the truth of God’s Word.
John 17:17 - “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
This is why many of us are confused and deceived because we have nothing to check Satan’s suggestions against. We take his word, like Eve, “hook, line, and sinker” because we do not filter it with the Word of truth. Many of us do not filter the devil’s lies with the Word of God because we do not know the Word of God.
We could save ourselves so much worry and anxiety if we just knew the Word!
Whatever is honest and just.
This means “worthy of respect and right.” There are many things that are not respectable, and Christians should not think about these things.
Most of us keep our garbage outside. It does not make sense to keep the garbage can next to your dinner table where its stench mingles with the aroma of freshly prepared food. But this is what many Christians do when it comes to their thought life.
They expose themselves to things that they ought not think about. Many do not know that once a dishonorable thought enters the mind and takes root, it is hard to get rid of it. Like the weeds in my lawn, thoughts turn into strongholds and are hard to remove.
The key is thinking on things that are honest and just; worthy of respect and right.
Whatever is pure, lovely, and of good report.
“Pure” probably refers to moral purity, since the people then, as now, were constantly attacked by temptations to sexual impurity (Eph. 4:17-24; 5:8-12).
“Lovely” means “beautiful, attractive.”
“Of good report” means “worth talking about, appealing.”
Paul is letting us know that the believer must dwell on the pure and the clean; not the low and the disgusting thoughts of this corrupt world.
In verse eight, Paul summarizes the kinds of things we need to think on in order to experience the peace of God. He writes, “if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.”
There is a common mistake that is committed by many Christians. We tell people to stop doing things without giving them an alternative. It is like the parent who tells his son or daughter to stop listening to a certain kind of music without offering an alternative.
In this list, Paul is letting us know that it is not good enough to stop thinking about one thing without beginning to think about something in its place.
Christians must focus their thoughts on the virtuous or the excellent. If it has virtue, it will motivate us to do better.
Christians must focus their thoughts on things that are praiseworthy. If it is praiseworthy, it is worth sharing with others.
No Christian can afford to waste “mind power” on thoughts that tear him down or that would tear others down.
Now let me share with you a secret. If you examine the list we just went through you will find that we just read through a list of words that describe our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.
You may also be amazed to find that if you will compare this list to David’s description of the Word of God in Psalm 19:7-9, you will see a parallel.
Psa 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
Psa 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Psa 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
The Christian who fills his heart and mind with God’s Word will have a “built-in radar” for detecting wrong thoughts.
We are talking about how you can experience the peace of God! Psalm 119:65 says, “Great peace have they which love Thy Law.” Right thinking and right emotions is the result of daily meditation on the Word of God.
Review:
One can experience the peace of God by “Rejoicing constantly;” this is the first step in living in the peace of God.
The second step is by letting “your patient or gentle spirit be known to all men.” A gentle spirit is produced in the believer who has the hope that will one day Jesus will return to rapture him from here.
The third step in experiencing the peace of God is prayer. Paul said, “Don’t worry, just pray” because your loving, heavenly Father knows what you have need of.
The fourth step in experiencing the peace of God is reading, meditating and memorizing God’s Book, the Bible.
The fifth step to experiencing the peace of God is to meditate on the virtuous and the praiseworthy—meditate on Christ and His Word.
The last step Paul shares with us so that we might experience the peace of God is right living.
The Bible teaches that there is no peace to the wicked.
Prov 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues,
Psa 7:14 Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.
Psa 7:15 He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made.
Psa 7:16 His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.
Psa 32:10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;
Isa 48:22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."
But those who keep the Word of God will have peace:
Prov 3:21 My son, … Keep sound wisdom and discretion;
Prov 3:22 So they will be life to your soul And grace to your neck.
Prov 3:23 Then you will walk safely in your way, And your foot will not stumble.
Prov 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.
Thus Paul says in the closing verse of our text:
Phil 4:9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
You cannot separate outward action and inward attitude. Sin always results in unrest (unless the conscience is seared), and purity ought to result in peace.
Isaiah 32:17 says, “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and peace.”
The Word is saying here that right living leads to the peace of God in your life. Romans 3:22 tells us that the righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.
This is the crux of the matter—you will never experience the peace of God unless you have surrendered and submitted your life to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Seek the peace of God, seek the Prince of Peace Jesus today.
