Peace- The Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Especially at this season there is a lot of talk about PEACE- the PEACE of God; Jesus Christ in the Son of PEACE; PEACE, goodwill to all men. We talk a lot about it but do we really know what it is like to experience it.
How many of you like to put puzzles together? Don’t you just hate it when you get to the end and find out you have one or several pieces missing? It makes the entire puzzle worthless. We learned we can’t put puzzles together on our table and leave them there without covering them up when we weren’t working on it. We found out that Ginger, our Golden Retriever would go along the edge of the table and just swipe off entire sections of the puzzle and eat them. It was nothing to find out that an entire bottom border was missing! Our “piece was stolen”! How many times is our “peace” stolen? I am finding out that it is all right to not have ALL THE PIECES OF MY PUZZLE as long as I have the PEACE OF GOD!
Webster defines peace as—“calm and quiet; state of accord, freedom from troubling emotions or thoughts.”. Most definitions in the Bible of peace contain the word “one” or “oneness”. The opposite of that is anxious—which means “to divide in parts”. Sounds like STRESS to me.
Webster defines stress as—“emphasis, difficulties, force causing a strain” My definition of stress would go like this: “A state of being in many pieces, strewn all about and not knowing which piece goes where, all the edge pieces are missing and I am in too many pieces to have any clue as to know what to do!” There’s a lot of that going around! Just type “stress” into your Internet browser and you’ll get at least 500,000 results!
Anxiousness and Peace are OPPOSITES! You can’t be “divided into parts” and be “one” at the same time! We need PEACE in our lives. It truly is the missing PIECE of our puzzle of life. And the amazing thing about this word PEACE---- it includes not having all the PIECES of the puzzle! If we truly get this into our spirits- it will be quite liberating! I feel like if I really learn this lesson, my spirit will soar! I won’t have to carry all the burdens of the world, have to know all the questions and the answers to those questions! I will be quite free to do what God has really called me to do!
Recently I was so blessed to really see what this PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING really meant. I used to think that – in this verse- that peace of God that passed all understanding was a peace that we wouldn’t understand. It was so great and immense that it went beyond our understanding. But I saw something different here. That peace—goes—beyond our NEED to understand the situation or problem. See the difference? The “passing understanding” isn’t describing the peace but it is like a bridge that goes over our NEED TO UNDERSTAND! WE DON’T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND! That is the kind of peace this verse is talking about! It carries us beyond our need to understand and brings us to the other side—TRUST IN CHRIST!
I am the type of person that has to analyze everything. I drive myself crazy trying to find out the answers to everything- the reason and purpose to what took place. I want to know why? There is nothing wrong with questioning God, asking Him to help us understand certain situations in our lives or the lives of others or the world conditions. But more often than not- we have to come to a place where just let everything go. Sometimes there are no answers. We have to leave it with God. That is where this awesome PEACE comes in. It becomes a bridge over our need to understand and takes us across to the other side- putting our full trust and confidence in Jesus Christ.
PEACE- the missing PIECE of your puzzle. Are you missing that kind of peace in your life? Are you constantly looking back, or inside and out- trying to gather all the information, laying it all out in front of you and trying to fill in all the missing pieces? It will drive you crazy-- it will put stress on you that God never intended. Remember being anxious means to be divided into many parts and peace means oneness. You can't be divided into many parts and be one at the same time. I am finding out it is much easier and less stressful just to allow that bridge-- PEACE-- to take me over to full confidence and trust in Christ. After all- it is OK that God knows some things that I don't know. I don't have to know everything and have everything all figured out. That is where trust comes in.
PEACE-- it's all right to be missing a few pieces in your puzzle of life. In the grand scheme of things, many of the answers won't matter when we come face to face with God. He will just want to know how much we trusted Him with all the answers, all the missing pieces.
Especially at this season there is a lot of talk about PEACE- the PEACE of God; Jesus Christ in the Son of PEACE; PEACE, goodwill to all men. We talk a lot about it but do we really know what it is like to experience it.
How many of you like to put puzzles together? Don’t you just hate it when you get to the end and find out you have one or several pieces missing? It makes the entire puzzle worthless. We learned we can’t put puzzles together on our table and leave them there without covering them up when we weren’t working on it. We found out that Ginger, our Golden Retriever would go along the edge of the table and just swipe off entire sections of the puzzle and eat them. It was nothing to find out that an entire bottom border was missing! Our “piece was stolen”! How many times is our “peace” stolen? I am finding out that it is all right to not have ALL THE PIECES OF MY PUZZLE as long as I have the PEACE OF GOD!
Webster defines peace as—“calm and quiet; state of accord, freedom from troubling emotions or thoughts.”. Most definitions in the Bible of peace contain the word “one” or “oneness”. The opposite of that is anxious—which means “to divide in parts”. Sounds like STRESS to me.
Webster defines stress as—“emphasis, difficulties, force causing a strain” My definition of stress would go like this: “A state of being in many pieces, strewn all about and not knowing which piece goes where, all the edge pieces are missing and I am in too many pieces to have any clue as to know what to do!” There’s a lot of that going around! Just type “stress” into your Internet browser and you’ll get at least 500,000 results!
Anxiousness and Peace are OPPOSITES! You can’t be “divided into parts” and be “one” at the same time! We need PEACE in our lives. It truly is the missing PIECE of our puzzle of life. And the amazing thing about this word PEACE---- it includes not having all the PIECES of the puzzle! If we truly get this into our spirits- it will be quite liberating! I feel like if I really learn this lesson, my spirit will soar! I won’t have to carry all the burdens of the world, have to know all the questions and the answers to those questions! I will be quite free to do what God has really called me to do!
Recently I was so blessed to really see what this PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING really meant. I used to think that – in this verse- that peace of God that passed all understanding was a peace that we wouldn’t understand. It was so great and immense that it went beyond our understanding. But I saw something different here. That peace—goes—beyond our NEED to understand the situation or problem. See the difference? The “passing understanding” isn’t describing the peace but it is like a bridge that goes over our NEED TO UNDERSTAND! WE DON’T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND! That is the kind of peace this verse is talking about! It carries us beyond our need to understand and brings us to the other side—TRUST IN CHRIST!
I am the type of person that has to analyze everything. I drive myself crazy trying to find out the answers to everything- the reason and purpose to what took place. I want to know why? There is nothing wrong with questioning God, asking Him to help us understand certain situations in our lives or the lives of others or the world conditions. But more often than not- we have to come to a place where just let everything go. Sometimes there are no answers. We have to leave it with God. That is where this awesome PEACE comes in. It becomes a bridge over our need to understand and takes us across to the other side- putting our full trust and confidence in Jesus Christ.
PEACE- the missing PIECE of your puzzle. Are you missing that kind of peace in your life? Are you constantly looking back, or inside and out- trying to gather all the information, laying it all out in front of you and trying to fill in all the missing pieces? It will drive you crazy-- it will put stress on you that God never intended. Remember being anxious means to be divided into many parts and peace means oneness. You can't be divided into many parts and be one at the same time. I am finding out it is much easier and less stressful just to allow that bridge-- PEACE-- to take me over to full confidence and trust in Christ. After all- it is OK that God knows some things that I don't know. I don't have to know everything and have everything all figured out. That is where trust comes in.
PEACE-- it's all right to be missing a few pieces in your puzzle of life. In the grand scheme of things, many of the answers won't matter when we come face to face with God. He will just want to know how much we trusted Him with all the answers, all the missing pieces.
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