The Path to Peace (continued)

Second level—Below the surface, unseen motives shape our responses. All of us live with subsurface obstacles to peace. Everything we do is with an unseen motive that in many cases we’d rather not think about. In everything we get involved with, we have a self-centered personal interest that can rob us of our peace of mind and make us seem dangerous to those around us.

It is because of these natural inclinations that Paul urged us to let God override our natural inclinations with the spirit of His love. Paul knew that without heartfelt concern for others, there can be no lasting peace.

What I failed to see for a long time, however, is that it doesn’t do any good to say something like, “For your own peace of mind, and for goodness’ sake, start loving and caring for one another.” Moral emphasis is not the solution. God doesn’t ask us to have right motives because it is the right thing to do. He asks us to love one another on the basis of “underlying foundational issues.”

Third level—At a still deeper level, foundational beliefs shape our motives. Just as there is at least one unseen motive behind every action, so every motive rests on an underlying foundation of belief or misbelief.

Our natural tendency is to believe our eyes or our desires. We are most inclined to assess our well-being by counting our natural resources. We are quick to count our money and our friends, or to check our blood pressure and cholesterol to form a belief about how we are doing.

From his prison cell, however, Paul gave us a different example. He urged us to believe that the Lord is present (4:5), that God Himself can give us a peace we can’t understand (4:7), and that our Provider God can be our source of well-being in all the circumstances of life (4:13,19). Even in his repeated appeals for good and honorable motives (2:3-4), Paul made it clear that an honest concern for others must emerge from our own belief that our God is attentively looking after our every need.

This confidence in God was the secret of Paul’s peace of mind (4:11-13). This foundational reliance upon his Provider is what allowed him to say to others of like faith, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me . . . . And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (4:13,19).

Father in heaven, in so many ways we have looked for contentment in all of the wrong places. We have counted our well-being in terms of our strengths rather than in the weaknesses that have brought us back to You. Help us to rely on You, Lord. Please give us a peace that we can know even when we don’t feel it.

Personal Note from Mart

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