The peace of God is powerful, but it does not have to be complicated. Yet the same time, layers of habits, mindsets and decisions get in the way of our ability to walk in and maintain a connection to the peace of God. This complicates our desire to walk in peace.
The restoration of peace in our lives leads us to simplify and get out of the complexities that pile up upon our hearts. We also need to move from just moments of peace to a lifestyle of peace. But to walk in that, there are some habits that can help us remain connected to peace.
Here are some habits that I’ve found helpful to make His peace a close friend and companion to my life.
1. Let Go of Chronic Busyness
If you’re going to walk in the peace of God, you’re going to have to confront your lifestyle. One of the heavy spiritual forces over people’s lives is chronic, unending busy living.
If you were to dissect the demonic forces, many would mention greed, hate, lust or lawlessness. All of these would be valid, but few mention chronic busyness. It flies below the radar.
Why is this so dangerous? Because it’s killing the life and quality of our hearts. It’s making our relationship with God and each other very shallow. We are tolerating a low dosage of intimacy for the sake of our constant, driven and jam packed lives.
Pack the schedule in, listen to everyone’s demands, make sure that we’re always doing something. There is some false sense of accomplishment that we feel when we are constantly busy.
What are we avoiding?
Breaking Agreement with Busy Living
“I’m just way too busy,” is something we need to be repenting of, not wearing as a badge of honor. Unfortunately, our lack of identity gets hidden underneath layers of busyness. We cannot stand moments of silence or stillness, because it will cause us to face our insecurity, brokeness and heart-ache.
So most people just stay busy all the time.
I’m not advocating that people sit around doing nothing all the time, but we have exceeded our physical and emotional capacity very quickly, all in the name of “progress.” Yet we have less peace than ever before.
I want to encourage you to break agreement with chronic busy living. Renounce it out of your life. Resist this force that wants to tell you that if you’re not doing anything, you’re not productive and you don’t have any meaning in this world.
Take the time to study the lifestyle of Jesus and note where he got away from the crowds. Pay attention to how often He went going away to be alone.
There’s more times when people were in preparation. We’re constantly trying to do the next thing or work on the next project. It may achieve something, but it doesn’t produce the kingdom fruit that are possible.
We need to learn how to stop. I want to encourage you to practice regular stopping and pausing throughout your day. My best recommendation, is to start your day off and end your day off engaging the peace of God. And in the middle of the day, take mini breaks, have stopping points where you pause and engage God in his peace.
2. Face the Fear Factor
As we learn to engage peace, we have to learn to quiet ourselves. What’s often waiting for us? Fear. That fear will push us to stay busy, numb out and avoid dealing with the issues of our heart.
The force that fear wants to bring into your life is pressure:
- Pressure about the future.
- Pressure regarding your bills.
- Pressure about your children.
- Pressure about your job or ministry.
- Pressure coming from someone else’s problems that get dumped on you.
When we get honest about our fears, we can take responsibility and break agreement with them. And one of the greatest manifestations of fear being broken off is that pressure is released. Peace is often a result of pressure being removed from our lives.
3. Shift Your Mindset
When I change my mindset from, “God rescue me from this” to “God, teach me to keep my peace in the midst of this,” it helps me to get empowered through situations I may not be able to change in the moment.
There are many things you are going through that can change by you making a new decision. But there are certain situations that cannot be change by your decision. It is in those arenas that we need to learn to cultivate a new mindset.
Look at whatever steals your peace and make a decision to grow in your capacity of peace. Let it be an inside-out transformation, where “greater is He is who is in you” becomes a reality that overthrows your circumstances.
I’ve always found strength when I have changed from “God rescue me” to “Empower me to face this with Your peace.” That empowers me as an overcomer.
4. Cast Your Cares and Burdens
I can find the most fruit of entering into God’s peace when I let go of all the burdens are cares that are stacked up on my heart.
It is my observation that the majority of people live in daily burnout mode, because of the burdens they carry. We’ve come into agreement with a belief system that says, “It’s all on me.” Therefore, we become very overburdened, busy people with no peace.
So when I find my peace being stolen, I can find a list of cares or burdens that have accumulated on me, as though the pressure and results all weigh on my shoulders.
What about you? What burdens do you need to let go of right now? Many of those areas are peace stealers that have to do with family drama or work related pressures that are sucking you in.
When I cast my cares and burdens upon God, I let go of trying to be superman and I enter into the belief that He cares for me and He’s working my behalf.
5. Speak Peace Over Your Storms
In your prayer life, it’s important that you speak from a place of peace and authority. And I have found there are times you need to speak to the storm. In Mark 4, Jesus is sleeping in the boat while a storm is raging. As he awakes, He stands up and rebukes the weather.
Who does that? Who rebukes the weather? Who looks at clouds and storms and rebukes it?
He spoke against the weather, because he knew there was an invisible attack involved in orchestrating this storm. There was an attack at work to keep them from getting to the other side and impacting that region.
I don’t even know if this fits in with your theological framework, but it’s in the Bible. He had to address the spiritual oppression that was behind the weather. I’m not advocating that you speak against every weather system you see, but when you live from God’s peace, you’ll know when you need to. I do know for certain that there are certain storms you face in life that need speaking to.
Be aware of peace robbers and don’t allow them in.
6. Practice Holding Your Peace
The greatest habit I have learned is to actually practice holding my peace every day. I’ve shared this in a video I posted, as I had to learn what it’s like to live in and hold my peace. I had no peace, so I had to give myself the chance to learn what living in God’s peace is like.
Video: Learning to Practice Your Peace
In the daily walk, God was not beating me up because I lost my peace so easily. He was patient, and is still patient to walk me through what it means to maintain that peace.
Next thing you know, I’m holding my peace for a whole day, and then days on end, because I gave myself the chance to learn. Taking the time to practice peace helped me to build up my inner life for the storms I am facing.
7. Surrender Productivity from Dominating Your Life
It’s wonderful to have a productive day, to feel that you accomplished something. But is that the number one marker for fulfillment?
Yesterday was not that productive of a day in my opinion. It was one of those days where it got started rough and just never kicked into gear. I was fumbling to get my mind straight and I felt like I was limping through the whole day.
The thought that was rising up was, “Mark, you are not being productive today.” And the pressure was seeking to rise up in me.
But I stopped and spoke to myself. I sat back and said, “it’s ok that today was not productive. Not every day needs to be productive. I am not a human robot or human doer. I am human being. I choose to just be, today. Besides, tomorrow, I can start over and have a new and fresh start.”
It gave me permission to lot let an “unproductive” day overtake me. While having productivity and achievement is wonderful. They often become the driving forces for our self-esteem and worth.
Gratitude and the Peace of God
When you feel the attack of “I am not being productive” coming against you, take back your peace by stopping and entering into gratitude. Focus on thanksgiving and get your attention on why you are loved. You are not loved and have value because you are productive every day.
God is constantly conditioning us, spirit, soul, and body to engage His peace so that we’re prepared for the circumstances in life. Most are not prepared for what’s ahead. We’re not prepared for the things that come our way. Even just that statement alone drives people into fear, “Oh, my goodness, I’m not prepared for what’s ahead.”
It’s not time to get into any fear. It never is. The time is ripe to fall into the peace of God–to practice it and kick out the invaders that seek to rob you of it.
Prayer for Peace
Father, in the name of Jesus I pray that you would release the peace of God over every reader. I pray that the peace of God would be so powerful in your life today, right here, right now. So pause for a moment and take in the peace of God.
God I pray that You empower each believer to take, hold, guard and watch over their peace. I thank You that we can have peace in any storm, so empower Your children to rest in that peace.
We can be at peace right now. Even when it doesn’t make sense. I thank you for that Father.
I refuse to let anything take me out of that place, because my Father is with me. As I fight the fight, He’s working with me, but He’s also fighting for me. I’m aware of that.
God, I thank you for that. In the name of Jesus Christ, I bless these people and I release Your peace over their lives. I rebuke the storms over their life from having power over them, because that’s what You empower us to walk in.
In Jesus name, amen.
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