“God’s got this,” is often recalled, while at the same time the stomach churns and the blood pressure’s up. Of all people, Christians should be at peace with God, others, themselves, and their situations, but it’s so very hard to pull this off, especially if you’re wired to worry.
That is why Paul says to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15) The word rule (brabeuo, in the Greek, used once in the NT) means to serve as an arbiter or umpire. Everything thrown at us must be submitted to Christ for a ruling, or we succumb to worry and doubt. In all cases, the ruling that comes down from above is, “I’ve got this.”
The kind of peace we should enjoy allowed Paul and Silas to sit in jail after flogging, singing hymns (Acts 16:25), and Stephen to accept his fate and preach a brilliant sermon (Acts 6:15, Acts 7), and the “birds of the air” to rely on their maker for food (Matthew 6:26). It allows us to “bear all things” and “hope all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7), and to love unconditionally. It’s the peace about which the Psalmist wrote, that “leads me beside quiet waters,” even though I “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” (Psalm 23:2,4).
How can we tell this peace is operative in our lives? We can manage no matter how incorrigible the people around us are, no matter how grave the circumstances, no matter how inadequate we might feel, to be thankful, which stems from bowing the knee to the arbiter of peace, Christ Jesus.
Whatever we face in life is under review by our Lord. We need to toss out the “red flag” more.
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