Peace is the Promise

“Fear…the city is rank with it.”

If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you likely recall this scene in the third installment of Peter Jackson’s cinematic trilogy. For those who are not, picture a huge, ominous army of filthy, ugly, evil creatures preparing to attack and breach a huge, majestic stone structure built into the side of a mountain. Impressive though the castle is, the army within is terribly outnumbered by the scores of monsters outside.

It is within this context that the commanding soldier of the grotesque masses makes the statement above. He then declares, “Let us ease their pain. Release the prisoners!” You need only to continue watching for several more seconds to realize that his desire to “ease their pain” is not genuine but a crude, crude joke, for the contents launched into the castle ranks by catapult are meant—not to ease pain or subdue fear—but to accomplish the exact opposite.

The Church’s great enemy (I almost capitalized that, but he deserves no such honor) may be saying something similar today. “Fear…the city of God is rank with it.” Even more likely is, “Fear…the country, the world is rank with it.” Only you, the reader, can know if this is true of yourself. Is your heart, your mind rank with fear? Fear of sickness? Fear of dying? Fear of financial hardship? Fear of any of these happening to your loved ones? Are you afraid?

Question: how do you respond when you are fearful? Another question: where are you turning in the midst of your fear? I would tell you that Facebook is a wonderful place to alleviate your fears, but you likely know that to be quite untrue already. The same goes for the news, the radio, or any other source from which we continue to be barraged with information regarding the virus sweeping through the nation. Staying informed is important, certainly, for we need to act responsibly in light of this crisis. Yet, at what point are we doing ourselves more harm than good?

The evil army’s “gift” in Return of the King increased fear and increased a sense of pain. Why? Because the army in the castle was forced to think on their fear, come (literally) face-to-face with it, and dwell on it.

What are we thinking about during this time? If we connected our brains to a pie-chart generator and observed the resulting graph, what portion of the chart would reflect our fear? 10%? 20%? 90%?

Lately, I’ve been meditating on some of Paul’s words to the Philippians. I think they are worth quoting in their entirety:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:4-9 (ESV)

I want you to notice a few things in particular in this passage.

One, the Lord is at hand. I don’t want to say much more than just that. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is at hand. Perhaps meditating on just those five words this week is what you need right now. Think on who the Lord is, what He has done for you, how He cares for you, and that He is near. He is here. The Lord is at hand.

Two, do not be anxious about anything. I’ll save you some time and simply say that the original language isn’t all that different. (Or you can go to biblehub.com like I did to see for yourself.) Be anxious about nothing. Greek or English, we don’t get any wiggle room here. Don’t worry, don’t fret, don’t cultivate a troubled mind over anything. 

Three, in everything…let your requests be made known to God. The juxtaposition is telling. Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, in everything… The key to this admonition of the Holy Spirit through Paul is the manner in which we approach God with our requests. (1) by prayer and supplication, (2) with thanksgiving. To pray and supplicate (“ask or beg for something earnestly or humbly”) to and before God is to admit our dependence on Him. By definition, we acknowledge that He is the Creator and we are the created when we pray. To do so with thanksgiving requires that we come to Him with gratitude and appreciation in the midst of the trial we are facing. With that said, if anyone has mastered such a thing, please give me a call. Yet, hard though it may be, that is our calling which we ought to pursue.

Four, the peace of God…will guard. Paul gives us a promise in this passage, but it is not a promise of deliverance from our circumstances. It is a promise of deliverance from our fear and anxiety. Peace is the promise. This peace “which surpasses all understanding” is hard to understand precisely because our circumstances do not necessarily change and the hardships do not necessarily go away. And this peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. If there is ever a time we need our hearts and our minds guarded, it is now, my friends.

Five, think about these things. Here’s an exercise for you. Write out the things Paul lists in verse eight in one column. You’ll have eight items, incidentally. In a second column, consider the opposites of the items in the first list. For instance, you may say that an opposite of “true” is “false” or “a lie.” Go down the line. Though such an exercise will not exhaust nor hit on everything this verse should teach us, this may provide you with a practical way of gauging your thoughts during this period in our country’s history. As the peace of God guards our minds, let us think about these things as well, for the two go hand-in-hand.

A final thought: there is only one individual who fits into every category listed in verse eight. Peace is the promise, and it is our promise because of the One who hung on a tree. May we think less on the fears which fly over our castle walls and think more on the Son of the God of peace in whom we rest.