You must know God to know His peace.

The world we live in is an uncertain place. This can make us fearful of large-reaching events occurring such as terrorist attacks, nuclear threats, or natural disasters. Or our fears may be more personal such as being afraid we’ll get cancer, lose our job, or our children won’t walk with God when they grow up.

But Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). This peace is the tranquil state of a soul assured that God loves us and is in control no matter what the world or the devil throws at us.

If you lack peace about something it could be in part because the devil is whispering fear-producing “what if” questions in your ear. Such as, what if I get breast cancer like my sister did? What if I get laid off from my job and lose my house? At one point in my life Satan played on my insecurities and kept whispering to me, “What if God really doesn’t love you?” That caused some anxiety.

It doesn’t matter what question Satan poses, they are all mental arguments that have no real answers. When we try to answer the devil’s inquiries, we give him power to instill anxiety into us. To prevent anxiety from coming in and for the peace of God to rule in our heart, we have to apply the truth. This entails knowing God’s Word about our specific fear-producing topic and speaking it.

I’ll use my example to demonstrate. To ease my anxiety I had to stop questioning God’s love for me. To do that I had to investigate who I am in Christ. But to know who I am, I first had to understand who God is. First John 4:8 tells us that God is love. First Corinthians 13:4-8 explains that love is patient and kind, it does not envy, it isn’t arrogant or selfish or provoked to anger, it takes no account of evil, and it rejoices in the truth.

These verses are probably just as familiar to you as they were to me. I knew them in my mind, but I didn’t fully believe them in my heart. In other words, I hadn’t put this love on God’s face—because I still viewed Him like my earthly dad.

I didn’t really know who I was in Christ either, but I knew the Bible said I’m a daughter of God. However, having grown up with a tyrant for a dad, my heart also knew that being a daughter hurt. To avoid further pain I unconsciously learned to guard my heart. This prevented God from developing a Father-daughter relationship with me.

To develop intimacy between God and me, I had to spend more time with Him and time meditating on who He is. This would help me get to know Him well enough to trust Him with my heart. To accomplish that and at the same time to battle the devil’s “what if” questions, I made a list of God’s attributes. That helped me to easily speak them, especially when the lies came.

My initial list consisted of God is. . . Love. Merciful. Holy. Powerful. Beautiful. Perfect. My rock. My strong tower. My Father. This list became much longer the more I got to know Him. I also began to list who I am in Christ. I am. . . Accepted in the Beloved. A daughter of the Most High God. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Victorious. Filled with faith.

Meditating on these truths helped me to get a glimpse of myself as the daughter of a powerful yet tender and loving Father. Yes, our heavenly Father is to be obeyed, but He is also our Daddy and we can know Him intimately enough to sit on His lap.

That was just the beginning of a long journey of realizing who I am in Christ and of whom God really is. It took a while before God’s peace truly ruled in my heart. But when it did, fear and anxiety ceased to exist and the devil’s “what if” questions had no power over me.

The devil knows our insecurities and fears, sometimes even better than we do because we often bury our painful memories. Take heed of any issues producing anxiety or lack of peace, as there may be a deeper cause than is readily apparent. I encourage you to ask God to reveal any secrets hidden in your heart. And find out what the Word of God says on that topic, and start feeding on it regularly until it gets settled in your heart. Then the peace of God that transcends all understanding will embrace you like a warm blanket and you can snuggle up on His lap and rest peacefully in His arms.

Blessings,

Denise