Jn 14:27
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

We may each think we want or need something different – more money, better job, friends, better health, better marriage, but I suggest we all really want the same thing – to be at peace. I believe that we all think that once we attain or obtain what we think is missing in our lives, we will finally be at peace, and happy. Why?

Because then we won’t be struggling and always wanting something we don’t have. We will not entertain thoughts that are divided – split between our yearning for God and waiting upon His will and our yearning to obtain for ourselves what we don’t have. Our lives will not be the slave of our fears and troubles, because we will trust God to handle what is out of our control. The peace that Jesus gives is rest, absence of struggling, and being set at one again – no divided mind wanting what it doesn’t have.

So how does the Bible say we get peace? Let’s look at different scriptures and see what we can learn by combining the truth from all of them, because the truth never contradicts itself.

Rom 8:6
6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.

Rom 15:13
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Isa 26:3
3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on You in perfect peace, for it is trusting in You.

To be spiritually-minded means to have thoughts and purposes that are related to what the Spirit wants. To be carnally-minded means to have thoughts and purposes focused on what the flesh wants. So when we are focused on earthly things that we don’t have but want, it divides our attention from God, and we become double-minded.

It leads us to always be struggling and striving in our own power to obtain what we perceive to be missing from our life, instead of just trusting God for everything. We are neither at rest nor at one with ourselves – we are torn. When we focus on what the spirit wants, we single-mindedly strive to hear and obey God, and the result is peace.

Peace comes from believing in and relying on God, and results in hope in God for the future. As long as we are relying on ourselves to “get” for ourselves, instead of trusting and receiving from God, we will not experience peace. This can only be done by relying daily on God’s empowering grace in our lives.

Penny Haynes
http://ChristianWomenWithDepression.com