Found: God's Peace

Experience True Freedom from Anxiety in Every Circumstance

John MacArthur, Jr.

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781434708946
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Religione

In Found: God's Peace, trusted pastor and teacher John MacArthur tackles this vital question head-on. Throughout the book, MacArthur shares principles to help you overcome uncertainty, defeat worry, and experience true freedom from anxiety.

Based on MacArthur's bestselling Anxious for Nothing, this small and concise book moves beyond pop psychology's temporary cures and returns readers to the true source of comfort and victory: Scripture. As John MacArthur writes, the key to worry-free living is to develop habits of prayer, right thinking, and action. Here he draws on rich biblical truths to show readers how.

Chapter 1

AVOIDING ANXIETY THROUGH PRAYER

Just as Matthew 6 is Jesus’s great statement on worry, Philippians 4 is the apostle Paul’s charter on how to avoid anxiety. Those passages are the most comprehensive portions of Scripture dealing with our topic and therefore are foundational to understanding how God feels about anxiety and why He feels that way. The teaching is clear, compelling, and direct. In Philippians 4:6–9, Paul issued a series of commands:

Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul straightaway said not to worry, but he doesn’t leave us there. His instruction helps us fill the vacuum by directing us toward positive steps: right praying, right thinking, and right action. The best way to eliminate a bad habit is to replace it with a good one, and few habits are as bad as worrying. The foremost way to avoid anxiety is through prayer. Right thinking and action are the next logical steps, but it all begins with prayer.

React to Problems with Thankful Prayer

Paul said, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). This teaching tells us how to pray with gratitude. The Greek terms Paul used refer to specific petitions made to God in the midst of difficulty.

Instead of praying to God with feelings of doubt, discouragement, or discontent, we are to approach Him with a thankful attitude before we utter even one word. We can do that with sincerity when we realize that God promises not to allow anything to happen to us that will be too much for us to bear (1 Cor. 10:13), and He promises to work out everything for our good in the end (Rom. 8:28) and to “perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish” us in the midst of our suffering (1 Peter 5:10).

These are key principles for living the Christian life. Go beyond memorizing them to letting them be the grid through which you automatically interpret all that happens to you. Know that all your difficulties are within God’s purpose, and thank Him for His available power and promises.

Being thankful will release you from fear and worry. It is a tangible demonstration of trusting your situation to God’s sovereign control. And it is easy to do, since there are so many blessings to be thankful for: knowing that God will supply all our needs (Phil. 4:19), that He stays closely in touch with our lives (Ps. 139:3), that He cares about us (1 Peter 5:7), that all power belongs to Him (Ps. 62:11), that He is making us more and more like Christ (Rom. 8:29; Phil. 1:6), and that no detail escapes Him (Ps. 147:5).

The prophet Jonah reacted with thankful prayer when a great fish swallowed him (Jon. 2:1, 9). If you suddenly found yourself swimming in a fish’s gastric juices, how do you think you’d react? Maybe you’d cry out, “God, what are You doing? Where are You? Why is this happening to me?” If there were ever an excuse for panic, surely this would be it. But no, Jonah reacted differently:

I called out of my distress to the LORD,

And He answered me.…

You had cast me into the deep,

Into the heart of the seas.…

I have been expelled from Your sight.…

Water encompassed me to the point of death.

The great deep engulfed me,

Weeds were wrapped around my head.

I descended to the roots of the mountains.…

While I was fainting away,

I remembered the LORD,

And my prayer came to You,

Into Your holy temple.

Those who regard vain idols

Forsake their faithfulness,

But I will sacrifice to You

With the voice of thanksgiving.…

Salvation is from the LORD. (vv. 2–9)

Although Jonah had his weaknesses, he reflected profound spiritual stability in this prayer. He was confident of God’s ability to deliver him if He so chose. In the same way the peace of God will help stabilize us if we react to our circumstances, however unusual or ordinary, with thankful prayer instead of anxiety. That’s the promise of Philippians 4:7: “The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This precious verse promises inner calm and tranquility to believers who pray with a thankful attitude. Notice, however, it doesn’t promise what the answer to our prayers will be.

This peace “surpasses all comprehension,” which speaks of its divine origin. It transcends human intellect, analysis, and insight. No human counselor can give it to you because it’s a gift from God in response to gratitude and trust.

The real challenge of Christian living is not to eliminate every uncomfortable circumstance from our lives, but to trust our sovereign, wise, good, and powerful God in the midst of every situation. Things that might trouble us, such as the way we look, the way others treat us, or where we live or work, can actually be sources of strength, not weakness.

Jesus said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). As disciples of Christ, we need to accept the fact that we live in an imperfect world and allow God to do His perfect work in us. Our Lord will give us His peace as we confidently entrust ourselves to His care.

The peace of God “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). John Bunyan’s allegory The Holy War illustrates how this peace guards the believer’s heart from anxiety, doubt, fear, and distress. In it, Mr. God’s-Peace was appointed to guard the city of Mansoul. As long as Mr. God’s-Peace ruled, Mansoul enjoyed harmony, happiness, joy, and health. However, Prince Emmanuel (Christ) went away because Mansoul grieved him. Consequently, Mr. God’s-Peace resigned his commission, and chaos resulted.

The believer who doesn’t live in the confidence of God’s sovereignty will lack God’s peace and be left to the chaos of a troubled heart. But our confident trust in the Lord will allow us to thank Him in the midst of trials because we have God’s peace on duty to protect our hearts.

During World War II, an armed German freighter picked up a missionary whose ship had been torpedoed. He was put in the hold. For a while he was too terrified to even close his eyes. Sensing the need to adjust his perspective, he told of how he got through the night: “I began communing with the Lord. He reminded me of His word in the 121st Psalm: ‘My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he … shall neither slumber nor sleep’ (vv. 2–4 KJV).… So I said, ‘Lord there isn’t really any use for both of us to stay awake tonight. If You are going to keep watch, I’ll thank Thee for some sleep!’”1 He replaced his fear and anxiety with thankful prayer, and the peace of God that resulted enabled him to sleep soundly. You too will enjoy peace and rest when you cultivate the habit of looking to God with a grateful attitude.

Focus on Godly Virtues

Prayer is our chief means of avoiding anxiety. After Paul said not to be anxious (Phil. 4:6), he added two complete sentences specifying how we’re to pray and what the benefits will be. The English text, reflective of the Greek, launches into a new paragraph on godly thinking and practices. Philippians 4 is often oversimplified and misrepresented as ...