[ This post is based on a Rock City Church sermon, from Pastor Chad Fisher. I have elaborated on my notes from the sermon with my own thoughts and reflections. Any direct quotes from my pastor will be cited. ]
Peace
There is no doubt that anxiety, worry, and fear fill our world today. It is essentially everywhere we turn. I could go on and on and fill several paragraphs with all the things that worry me, and probably you, on a daily basis. But what’s the point of that? Have you ever just yearned to have peace in your heart, to feel more at ease, to worry less? Trust me, I have been there. I think this is one thing we can all agree on, no matter our spiritual beliefs, political beliefs, moral beliefs, race, gender, religious affiliation, etc.
“The one thing we ALL desire is PEACE.” -Chad Fisher
And you wanna know something that is so easy to forget, or maybe not even know in the first place?
“Peace has been GUARANTEED to you by God.” -C.F.
Worry or Worship?
How do we know that? How can we be so sure? One of my FAVORITE Bible verses, that I need to remind myself of daily, states, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” -Phillippians 4: 6-7
Notice that it says “You WILL experience God’s peace.” Not you might, or perhaps. Keep in mind, like everything else, we are on God’s time. We don’t get to choose when we receive our blessings. And sometimes we learn the importance of waiting on God. But yes, we CAN have peace in our hearts and our homes, even when everything and everyone around us seems to be in shambles, going crazy, and/or falling apart. And I think a lot of it does have to do with our perspective and our mind set. Like my pastor said…
“We can choose to worry or we can choose to worship. We can choose to focus on our troubles or we can choose to focus on God.” -C.F.
I know that many of you would argue that we can’t control the worrisome thoughts that come to our heads. I agree. It is extremely difficult to control that. However, I would argue that if you spend time disciplining yourself to focus on God, to get in His Word, and to pray and worship, then you might be surprised what kind of thoughts begin to fill your mind.
Prayer
So how do we do it? How do we get to that desired and “guaranteed” peace? Phillippians 4:6 gives us the answer to that. It’s prayer. We better learn how to pray.
“Prayer is the pathway to peace.” -C.F.
But how do we pray? How do we know if we’re doing it right? How do we know if it’s actually going through to the big man upstairs? It is OK to wonder these things, even as a believer. But I’m sure for many non-believers, and new Christians, the idea of prayer can be a little foreign.
Lucky for us, the disciples asked Jesus this same question (How do we pray?) and in Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus gives them a direct answer. An easy to follow, step-by-step guide is how I like to think of it. Remember when you were in middle school, and your teacher asked you to write an essay, but before you did, she showed you an “example essay.” And she said, “This is what you should strive for” (without plagiarizing of course!)
The Lord’s Prayer
I feel like that’s what Jesus gives us in Matthew Chapter 6, as he recites The Lord’s Prayer. However, unlike any English teacher you ever had, He gives us a free pass and says that we CAN plagiarize and recite it exactly as it is if we would like!
So this particular sermon focuses on just the first 4 words of this prayer, and that is all I will get to in this post. However, stay tuned! Because I’ll be diving into each line of the Our Father one by one.
Here we go… the first 4 words of The Lord’s Prayer are “Our Father in Heaven.” Seems so simple, yet so much to unpack! The main thing to dive into here is the word FATHER.
“God is not a FORCE; he is a FATHER.” -C.F.
This is a beautiful thing because we can get to know Him. We can relate to Him. But unfortunately I feel like this is where you, as readers, are going to split into 2 categories. Those that have wonderful experiences with their earthly fathers, and are able to view God the FATHER in a positive way. And those that have very difficult, challenging, and sometimes non-existent experiences with their earthly fathers. Therefore, viewing God the Father any differently is hard to do.
But here’s the thing… our Heavenly Father surpasses any earthly father we could ever have. Even the good ones… and boy are there some good ones! So what kind of father is God? I’m going to go over 4 attributes of God the Father, as outlined in this sermon. Each attribute is backed up by and explained in the Scriptures.
1. “He is a LOVING Father.” -C.F.
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” There’s not too much that needs explaining on that one. One of my favorite verses that captures God’s love for us.
- Mark Chapter 4 – You may or may not be familiar with this story. Jesus and His disciples are in a boat during a storm. Jesus is asleep, and the storm is getting worse. His disciples grow increasingly worried, wake Jesus up, and say to Him, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus immediately calms the storm and asks them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” This not only shows His power, but His great love for us. If we are with Jesus, we have no reason to fear. And to quote my pastor…
- “If Jesus is on your boat, your boat will stay afloat.” -C.F.
- And finally, a simple and straightforward verse. 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you!”
2. “He is a FAITHFUL Father.” -C.F.
- The great thing about God’s love for us is that we can ALWAYS trust Him and depend on Him, even when we ourselves are not being trustworthy or faithful. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “Even if we are faithless, He remains faithful…” No matter how far we stray, or how much we mess up, God is always there for us. Now that’s a faithful Father.
- Psalm 59:10 “My God is changeless in His love for me. In His unfailing love, my God will stand with me.” CHANGELESS. He doesn’t change His word, He doesn’t change His promises. My pastor compared this to the common interaction between kids and parents today. The kids want something and try to use the parents’ words against them. “BUT YOU SAID…” Anyone heard it? And most parents’ immediate response is “I never said that.”
- With God, it’s the opposite. God is so confident in His word, ALL of His words to us, that He has given it to us in written form. He wants us to hold it up to Him and use it as proof. He loves when we use His word to remind Him of the promises He has made. That is one faithful Father.
3. “He is an EVER-PRESENT Father.” -C.F.
- This next quote from my pastor is a good one. So read it twice, or 3 times if you need to, and let it sink in.
- “Peace is not the absence of trouble, it is the guaranteed presence of God in the midst of it.” -C.F.
- This is so important. When I said at the beginning of this post that peace is guaranteed to us by God, that doesn’t mean that with God we can have completely blissful lives with no troubles. In fact, God tells us we WILL have trouble in this life. We should expect it. But if we have God in our hearts, we have the most unfaltering armor to fight any battle, deal with any trouble, and weather any storm that comes our way.
- The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel Chapter 3 is a great example of this, and such a great story. Please give it a read if you haven’t already!
- Jesus is with you in every storm.
4. “He is a STRONG Father.” -C.F.
- It says in Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.” Nothing. He is capable of far more than you could even imagine.
- Ephesians 3:20 says “God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
- He is STRONG. He is CAPABLE of all things.
So there you have it. The 4 attributes of God our Heavenly Father: LOVING, FAITHFUL, EVER-PRESENT, STRONG. And it is through Him that we can find the PEACE that we so deeply desire. To find that peace in an anything-but-peaceful world is not easy. We’ve got to tune up our prayer life. But how do we pray? I invite you to follow along with me on my next few faith-based posts as I dive into the perfect model prayer that Jesus gave to us: The Our Father.
Again, this post was based on a Rock City Church sermon, and if you’d like to be truly inspired, I encourage you to listen to it here!
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BOOM!!! Awesome!