Does the idea of peace seem elusive to you, a concept that is often mentioned but never truly experienced? Brace yourself for an enriching discussion on how to experience a three-fold peace - with God, within oneself, and with others - and the significant role of prayer in achieving this tranquility. We dive into the rich depth of Philippians 4:6-7, shining a spotlight on the antidotal power of consistent prayer against anxiety, and the need to 'appropriate' this divine peace in our daily lives.
But what happens when suffering and pain cloud our lives? Can we still attain peace? Drawing inspiration from Jordan Peterson's personal journey and Apostle Paul's teachings, we navigate the path to finding meaning and hope amidst suffering. Learn how prayer and thanksgiving can steer your focus towards the goodness of life, even when challenges seem insurmountable. By the end of this episode, you will comprehend the power of practicing what we've learned and received, as we emphasize the sufficiency of Christ in truly experiencing God's peace. An episode guaranteed to nourish your soul and transform your walk of faith.
Does the idea of peace seem elusive to you, a concept that is often mentioned but never truly experienced? Brace yourself for an enriching discussion on how to experience a three-fold peace - with God, within oneself, and with others - and the significant role of prayer in achieving this tranquility. We dive into the rich depth of Philippians 4:6-7, shining a spotlight on the antidotal power of consistent prayer against anxiety, and the need to 'appropriate' this divine peace in our daily lives.
But what happens when suffering and pain cloud our lives? Can we still attain peace? Drawing inspiration from Jordan Peterson's personal journey and Apostle Paul's teachings, we navigate the path to finding meaning and hope amidst suffering. Learn how prayer and thanksgiving can steer your focus towards the goodness of life, even when challenges seem insurmountable. By the end of this episode, you will comprehend the power of practicing what we've learned and received, as we emphasize the sufficiency of Christ in truly experiencing God's peace. An episode guaranteed to nourish your soul and transform your walk of faith.
Hello and welcome back once again to the Real Friends Podcast Advent Series. We continue on in our adventure of the second theme, which is peace. So we've already talked about three of the facets of peace, or shalom, since that is such a weightier word and has so much else to it that we can have. Well, we need peace with God, and then that, in turn, enables us to search out peace for ourself internal peace and then, after that, we can have peace with others. But we don't always have one or more of these kinds of peace, even though we're aware of them. As Christians, do I have the right of that?
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, we're going to talk about the appropriation of peace. It's interesting that, as a Christian, we have access to all those facets of peace through Jesus, but yet many of us still walk in anxiety and man. This is convicting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you say appropriate it you mean take what we know is there and really live it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, walk in it, walk in it More consistently.
Speaker 1:Would that be fair, Tyler?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when Christ came I think he made that peace available to us. But even as Christians we have to learn to walk in that peace, to appropriate it.
Speaker 1:Gotcha All right. So we've got a set of verses that are really really touch on this. Well and so, Tyler, if you would read from its Philippians 4, and we're going to start with 6 and 7.
Speaker 3:That's correct. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, that your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. And Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:Paul here is writing to the church at Philippi. These are believers, and yet he has to command these people. You know, the ones who have the Prince of Peace, access to the peace that surpasses all understanding. He has to tell them do not be anxious.
Speaker 1:Well, just like with us, there's a lot going on in their world. You know a lot of persecution, various things. It's understandable why they would, I think, forget to walk with that perfect peace sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in all seriousness, this just gives me a little bit of encouragement, because I feel at times guilty for being so anxious. But Paul here gives us the key. He doesn't just give us the command, but he gives us, you could say, the antidote to anxiety. And what is that?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, verse 6 and 7, it's like a formula. He's saying you know, don't be anxious, and then the key word is prayer, but, yeah, but. And then he gives us the answer through prayer and supplication.
Speaker 2:The anecdote to anxiety, first and foremost. I mean, there are many ways that we can appropriate the peace of God in our lives, but the first and foremost way that we do that is through prayer, which is something that we do not do enough.
Speaker 1:No, we try to fix things ourselves, and this is not, by the way, to imply that we shouldn't be doing things to. You know you can exercise to try to get a certain level of calmness. You might even be taking, you know, you know prescription medications, various things to help you with these things, but the first and foremost thing needs to be prayer, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If we are not people of prayer, we will not be people of peace. One of the main reasons Christians are so anxiety ridden is because we, by and large, we're just not not committed to prayer. And I kind of joke and say you know, at church if we have a, if we have a potluck, I mean man, our fellowship hall will be standing room only. But you guys have been to our prayer meetings Pretty sparse.
Speaker 1:I can understand why we show up there for the food. I'm from the Midwest and while the cooking there is fine, this is the south and y'all, I will come to the potlucks. It's a lot better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, make a mistake.
Speaker 1:I will come, stick to your ribs. There you go, add some ribs, ribs and lime of beans. Tonight Curious to see a pastor's wife. But prayer needs to be first and foremost in our, in our minds and what we need to be. And it's funny, pastor, you mentioned being focused on and committed to prayer. We can say, well, I get up in the morning or I go to bed at night, and you know I make sure to, you know, pray for my daily bread, you know, say the common prayer, say the Lord's prayer, you know. You know, maybe I say a prayer of Thanksgiving at night, things like this, and that's great. But that's probably not the level of commitment they had back in the time when this was being written, is it?
Speaker 2:No, that's right. You know there are two facets or two, let's say, aspects of prayer, and both are vitally important. So one we do need dedicated time of prayer every day. You know Jesus, he often would get up early and go to the mountain and pray. And so we need time of dedicated prayer. And I believe that we ought to pray in the morning, you know, first thing, because when we do that we are setting the tone for the day. And you know it's interesting in the Lord's Prayer it says that we're to pray. Give me this day my daily bread. That doesn't sound like a prayer. We should pray in the evening, after the day is completed.
Speaker 1:No, that's definitely a matinee prayer. Would that be the fancy five dollar word for you know daytime?
Speaker 2:Well, it's like you know, I feel like in our failure to pray in the morning, I think that we're saying to God you know what? I've got this. I'll call you if I need you. Hey, real quick can I add something real quick?
Speaker 1:Please bail me out here.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about this. You know, in the Bible it talks about the pray without ceasing, and I know that don't mean pray every second of the day, but you think about when you're anxious and stuff like what do you tend to do? Like you try to take a deep breath so you can say that prayer, you can use prayer as another form of breathing. Whenever you feel anxious, you immediately pray for that, you know.
Speaker 2:That's right. So that's the other facet of prayer. So we are. Paul says we're to pray without ceasing. I used to say seizing Well hopefully you're praying without seizing as well. That's right, yeah, but we're to pray, you know, on a regular basis. That's kind of you know, the way I think about it is just talking to God throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Involving God in your you know decisions. You decide you're going to do something, you're hoping for a certain effect. You don't have to necessarily literally be speaking out loud in your head every second, but you start. Okay, I'm going to move on to this next project, this next thing that I am doing in my day, all right. Well, even though I prayed this morning and I am now going to pray ahead of this specifically, and then afterwards, that goes well, okay, well, I want to involve God now by thanking him. Okay, now I'm moving on to the next thing. Oh, I'm really anxious about this next thing. Pray about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I want to say here I want to be careful, because I think many people do that throughout the day, which is an awesome thing and the thing that's commanded to us, but that is not a replacement for what I just had, you know, mentioned a minute ago. We still need that dedicated, focused time of prayer with the Lord. So our prayer to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. This is an addition.
Speaker 2:That's right. So we take dedicated time every day. I mean again, I can't stress enough the importance of beginning your day and, I would say, ending your day with that dedicated prayer. Maybe perhaps say morning, noon and night, but In addition to that, we do need to pray continually throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Okay, Tyler, let's move on now. You did verses six and seven. Now how about verse eight, please?
Speaker 3:So, philippians, four, eight, 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 worth of praise, think about these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so some experts today believe that anxiety is so common in America because of how much information we receive on a regular basis and we're inundated mostly with really bad and frightening news throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or even if it's not, that just being. You know, we want to make a choice, we go after information and we can be overwhelmed just with sheer amounts of information good, bad or indifferent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if we're focusing on the negative, on the fearful things in life all day, every day, of course, of course we're going to be anxious, right? But Paul says this and, by the way, when Paul is writing this he is actually imprisoned. And yet he has just said, you know, in previous verses, rejoice in the Lord at all times. And here he gives a key on how to be less anxious and how to rejoice in all situations. He says pray, but then he says pray with Thanksgiving and then to meditate on the good, if there's anything good or praise worth of your noble meditate on these things.
Speaker 2:One of the chapters in Jordan Peterson's compelling book 12 rules for life is titled Pet a cat. When you encounter it, it's an autobiographical chapter where Peterson shares about how to survive in the face of tragedy. When his daughter Michaela was young, she battled some crippling autoimmune disease I believe it was rheumatoid arthritis and she obviously suffered tremendously herself. But if you've ever had a sick child, you know that Jordan and his wife suffered immensely as well. And so he tells this story about his neighborhood cat. This neighborhood cat that was extremely friendly and would often come over to the yard and kind of come up to them and almost bid them to pet it. And the point is is that when the cat would come over, they would actually take time, in the midst of all the tragedy and suffering they were enduring, to pet that cat.
Speaker 2:And it's in those moments it would just bring them some glimmer of joy or hope or normalcy. And it's a reminder I think this is Peterson's point it's a reminder that in the midst of suffering, that we must look for what is meaningful and what is soul sustaining. And I think that's a great illustration for what Paul is imploring us to do as believers when we face anxieties. Well, paul gives us a key that Jordan Peterson doesn't point out. He says the way to do that is to pray, but not just pray, but pray with Thanksgiving. How do you think that might help us meditate on the good or to see the good in life?
Speaker 1:When we find things to be thankful for, I think we can't help but remember where the good things, and certainly the very best things, come from. They come from Christ. In fact, the best thing is Christ. If we have nothing else to meditate on, do they have? Everything else Seems like it is teetering on the precipice of feeling like hell. We can remember that we have the best thing of all, that we have Christ, and then, if we can find other things, so much the better.
Speaker 2:That's right. He's sufficient, he is enough, he's more than enough.
Speaker 1:Amen. And to that end, tyler, you pointed out we were originally going to stop with verse eight, but you pointed out to us that we were mistaken, that verse nine was absolutely necessary.
Speaker 3:It kind of brings it all together. So, philippians, four, nine says what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.
Speaker 1:I don't think I can say any better than that All we can say is Shalom y'all, shalom y'all.