God’s Perfect Peace As a Fruit of the Spirit

The peace God offers to Believers is seriously amazing if we accept it and take Him at His Word. Take a look at what I mean:

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27a, emphasis added).

“You [God] will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.”

Our culture loves the idea of peace. Just take a look at any image from the 1960’s and you’ll get an idea. But we stink at actually giving peace or keeping peace. Take a bird’s eye view of every country, government, or leadership and you will see war throughout the ages. On a large scale, any man-made peace has been temporary at best. Times of seeming peace come and then they go. And even in those most peaceful times, if we zoom in and get a micro view, we see constant disturbances in the individual lives of humans. We see suffering, hunger, sadness, and anxiety—not peace. We fight, we lie, and we hurt each other. That is what mankind gives to one another (Proverbs 6:16–19).

But God offers us something much better as Believers: He offers His peace. The Word says His peace is perfect. The prophet Isaiah talked about it in Isaiah 26:3, when he said, “You [God] will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.”

So, let’s work that in reverse. Say we want the “perfect peace” that Isaiah described (and we do!). What should we do as Believers? It says to keep our minds dependent on God and trusting in God. So we need to obey that. When there is a problem in life and it threatens our peace, we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, even when it is hard (Proverbs 3:5–6). We surrender whatever it is that we are worried about or afraid of to God through prayer and trust in Him (Isaiah 26:4).

Our minds may circle with thoughts that feed fear rather than peace, but we take those thoughts captive and demolish them (2 Corinthians 10:5). Of course, we can’t do any of this without the help of the Holy Spirit and without being intentional. With the Holy Spirit inside of us, we have access to a peace unlike any we could experience without Him. He does give us peace. We just need to talk to Him and ask for it. He tells us this in the Bible. He says, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4:6–7, emphasis added).

He does not always take away all the problems (He would have to remove us from Earth to do that). But He does guard our hearts and our minds. He can insulate us with a peace that doesn’t make sense in the midst of surrounding turmoil—when we keep our minds fixed on Him.

The very next part of the Philippians 4 verse continues some of the best advice in the Scriptures: “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable​—​if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy​—​dwell on these things. Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8–9, emphasis added).

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