Serenity is Not Zero Conflict

Biblical serenity is peace while the conflict is raging. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When Jesus and the disciples were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in a raging storm, the worry and fear of the disciples were understandable (see Mark 4:35-41). But Jesus didn’t understand it. He was in the boat. He had the seat of honor reserved for the honored guest. Didn’t they get it? If Jesus was in the boat, it didn’t really matter whether they lived or died. Either way, they lived! He was asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat when the storm broke loose. He slept through it! How could he do that? Because He believed that His heavenly Father would carry His worries and cares. That He wouldn’t go to heaven one minute before his hour came. Jesus slept! He believed that the God who “watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4), so He reckoned that there was no point in both of them staying awake.

God Does the Guarding

When we refuse to worry about anything and commit to pray about everything, when we thank God for His dear and abiding self inside our heart, then, Paul says, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

The word “guard” brings into focus the image of a stronghold. God puts a garrison of soldiers around our hearts to face the enemy that besieges us. How does it happen? It happens when we respond to fear with faith, and to worry with worship. It happens when we are deep in God’s Word on a daily basis, hiding verses of promise away for a rainy day.

Peace is a commodity our fear-ridden world is looking for. Peace is spoken of over 150 times in the Old Testament and over eighty times in the New Testament. Paul uses the word over forty times. Peace is something that enters the heart and makes it able to rise above all outside conditions.

Worry, in the end, disguises unbelief. And unbelief–coming to expression in a feeling of uneasiness or dread often related to negative thinking–takes us down, spoils our witness, and robs us of power to cope. Worry superimposes the future on the present and empties today of its strength.

Do you suffer from perpetual uneasiness? Do you have a chronic low-grade spiritual headache? You need to listen to Paul. Logic says that 10 percent of things you worry about actually happen –and that leave 90 percent of things you worry about that don’t happen. Guess what I worry about? The 10 percent that will. The problem is that I waste today worrying about tomorrows that in most instances never come. Though logic can’t keep me from worrying, God can. As J. B. Phillips writes in his translation of 1 Pet. 5:6, “You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern.” The secret of the spiritual art of serenity and its resulting freedom from anxiety starts and ends here—in God’s loving arms.