“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17)
I often hear people say that it is difficult to unconditionally trust in God. I believe that this is due to a misunderstanding of how God works. God wants to give us the peace that passes all understanding (see Phil. 4:6-7). The first step in the process is to be anxious for nothing. Don’t we all wish for that? In Christianity, we cast all of our care on the Lord in order to be able to do this (see 1 Pet. 5:5-7). We don’t hold back anything. This does not reduce us to inaction. It merely takes the stress out of our daily activities. This concept is foreign to most of us who grew up with the idea that we worry about the things we can control and not worry about the things that we can’t. This is not in the Bible.
God is an integral part of the process. We cannot have perfect peace without God. The world also seeks inner peace, but it does not make use of God in order to arrive at this. Meditation practices in other religions and philosophies can only provide an unsustained, temporary peace. The biblical God is not in them; therefore, they do not bring you to a sustained inner peace. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock” (Is. 26:3-4). In God there are both peace and strength.
Many people don’t realize that this type of thing is even spoken of in the Bible, so they seek it in other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. The general theme of non-biblical spiritualities is to go inward to find their god. In the Bible, the thrust of the mind is outward in order to bring God inward. We don’t strive for peace, because this would be a contradiction. Striving, of itself, is non-peace; so how can striving bring you to its opposite. We rest our minds on God in order to have His peace. We surrender our striving. This is a very passive/receptive stance towards God. It is called humility.
Christ is the one who brings us to this place of peace when we trust in Him unconditionally. He says in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Christ is saying that He has inner peace from His humility and trust in the Father and that He can share it with us. This is the peace that passes all understanding. It doesn’t come from ourselves and what we can do with our own strength. The presence of Christ’s Spirit within us carries this rest for our souls. It is a fruit of the Spirit. This is how it gets transferred to us; then, all we have to do is to yield to it. The same is true of strength or temperance, which is also a fruit of the Spirit.
Peace and strength are available to anyone who wants to have them for themselves, but God resists the proud. Pride will prevent most humans from going to God. The effects of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are present in all of us. The thought of needing God is a stumbling block for many. We are more comfortable with relying on our own failed methods. We believe that our own knowledge of good and evil is enough for us to do the right thing, but we are wrong. We all have a built-in human weakness that makes us do the things that we don’t want to do, and not do the things that we should. Paul describes it in Romans 7:14-8:2.
Peace and strength can only come from Christ’s Spirit, who was poured out at Pentecost. Christ had to go through the redemption process of death and resurrection in order for these to be made available for us. If He was just a dead prophet or teacher, His Spirit would not be available. He needs to be alive so that we can live.
You can download Peter Aiello’s book, Hidden Treasure by visiting his web site: hiddentreasure.website.
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