Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! 5 Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is near! 6 Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 (NET)
In warfare, peace often comes through one side unconditionally surrendering. As long as two opposing wills still contend, there can be no peace. God first revealed himself as Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord Who Is Peace, to Gideon, immediately after commissioning him to go to battle against Israel’s enemies.
In a severe trial, if our wills are battling against God’s, divine peace comes through our unconditional surrender to God.
We are surrounded by Satan’s demonic forces who wish to destroy us, but, oddly enough, sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Our sin and the fear and mistrust in our hearts toward God can sabotage our efforts to be true to Him. God has a plan for our lives, but if we stubbornly and fearfully refuse to go along with that plan, we can end up in an unprotected place outside of God’s best for our lives, in need of His correction and deliverance.
Surrender to God and His will requires that we lay down our own agendas and our desire to control our lives.
It means that we must be open to the possibility that God will require us to go through something we dread. Unless we unconditionally surrender to God, we cannot have unconditional peace. By “surrendering” I do not mean that we passively submit to evil. Instead, when we find ourselves under attack, our first responsibility is to turn to God and acknowledge that he is sovereign over all things, including my current situation.
Unless God allows something to enter our lives, it will not happen. I am not hereby declaring that God is the author of evil, sin, suffering, or sickness. I am saying that God’s sovereignty transcends all these things in a magnificent and mysterious way that is beyond explaining.
Wisdom tells us that, no matter what God allows to come into our lives, we are first to acknowledge His sovereignty, seek Him and His will, and then engage the enemy as directed.
When the Philistines attacked David, his first response was to seek the Lord, Who gave him specific instructions regarding how to proceed.
Too often Christians flail about in sometimes misguided attempts to fend off the attack, rather than seek the Lord, Who may be allowing the attack in order to do a deep work in the believer.
When Jesus stood before Pilate, our Lord declared that the Roman ruler could only do to Him what God allowed.
So Pilate said, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority to release you, and to crucify you?” 11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.” John 19:10-11 (NET)
Before going to the cross, at which time darkness would temporarily rule, Jesus first did business with His heavenly Father – the real Ruler in every situation.
When we are about to enter a trial or are in the middle of one, we should first go to God and be sure our hearts and wills are submitted to what He wants to accomplish in our lives through the trial. It is only against that backdrop of trust and submission that we can know more perfectly what other actions we must take. If instead we simply begin to engage in what we might want to call “spiritual warfare,” we may find ourselves unhappily resisting God Himself. Imagine if Jesus had rebuked Satan instead of surrendering to death as God’s Lamb! This is what Peter advised his Master to do, but Jesus rebuked his misguided friend by telling him that he did not have the things of God in mind. Imagine how foolish it would be for us to fearfully rebuke a pending trial that may be the avenue of our knowing Christ as Provider, Healer, or in whatever other way we need to know Him!
Check in with God first. Find out what He wants to do; then, join His program. This is what it means to have Christ as Lord.
A severe trial will often cause whatever rebelliousness and fear we still may have deeply buried in our hearts to bubble to the surface. God knew it was there all along, but we may be surprised to discover what is hidden inside of us.
The fire of affliction tests and reveals our hidden motives and the nature and strength of our faith. If we know God loves us enough to expose these things in order to deliver us, we will better be able to endure the process by faith.
Unless we go through the fire, we never know for sure what is inside us. Until we face our fears, our faith is somewhat of a mystery. Soldiers who have never been in combat wonder what they will do under fire. No one can know for sure ahead of time. Once we go through our first battle, however, we know.
That which we dread can become for us the gateway into great faith and confidence after we have faced it and found that God’s grace enables us to overcome.
Job had to endure what he feared so that his subtle self-righteousness and proud indignation against God would bubble to the surface. God was far more interested in revealing Himself in a greater way to Job than in keeping him pain free.
When we realize that character transformation is a higher priority than our comfort and ease, we will begin to better understand God’s ways.
If we embrace God’s ways, we will be pliable in His hands for Him to mold us how He wishes.
As long as our peace hinges on a certain set of conditions or a certain answer to prayer, we will always be subject to our circumstances and miss out on experiencing real and lasting peace.
Being enslaved to our circumstances is a terrible way to live because we can never be completely at rest. What we dread could be just around the corner…and then what? It is no use trying to insulate ourselves from what we fear by “having enough faith.”
Faith was never designed to protect us from trials: rather, faith keeps us while we are in trials.
Ponder Christ’s words:
I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage — I have conquered the world. John 16:33 (NET)
If we believe that trusting in Christ is our ticket to a trouble free life, we are in for a shock. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are actually appointed to tribulations.
We sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen you and encourage you about your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 1 Thessalonians 3:2-3 (NET)
Trials, afflictions, suffering and tribulations work for us. They teach us perseverance and build character. Here is what Paul wrote to the church in Rome.
Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5 (NET)
It is only when we reconcile ourselves to the fact that life will contain many difficult trials, and only when we choose to surrender to God in the midst of them, trusting in His love and power to accomplish in us His desire through them, that we are able to have peace that passes understanding. I call this “unconditional peace” because it does not depend on any outward circumstance or condition. Whether we live or die, we have peace. Whether we get the answer we want or not, we have peace.
Peace resides in a Person, and His name is Jesus. As we fully surrender to that Person, we receive all of what that Person has and is.
One of His titles is the Prince of Peace. His peace becomes our peace, a peace that can never be shaken.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. John 14:27 (NET)
Moses wrote about this place of surrender and peace. It is a secret place hidden from life’s storms and the threats of the enemy. It is a place where God’s peace and presence reign undisturbed. We have access to that secret place by surrendering unconditionally to God’s will for our lives.
As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the sovereign One, and resides in the protective shadow of the mighty king — 2 I say this about the LORD, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust. Psalm 91:1-2 (NET)
Surrendering to God’s will and plan for our lives will not make us passive. In fact, we will find that, as we unconditionally surrender to God, great faith will rise up in our hearts – faith to overcome.
This chapter is taken from my book, Seeing God’s Smile When Life Is Difficult, which can be ordered from Amazon. This book is designed to help people through severe trials, but is helpful to all who wish to live by overcoming faith.
