Perfect Peace; a Glorious River

 

Always be full of joy in the Lord.  I say it again—rejoice!  Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.  Remember, the Lord is coming soon.  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then 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.  Philippians 4:4-7

The writer of the hymn Like a River Glorious, which we sang earlier in the service, was Frances Ridley Havergal.  She lived a short life (1836-79) in the middle part of the 19^th century.  She wrote about 50 hymns, many of which are still in church hymnals around the world.  This hymn came about because a friend wrote her a letter, in which she shared her struggle with faith, particularly about her salvation.  Frances wrote back to her quoting one of Paul’s other letters:

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Romans 5:1

She went on to say that this peace is ‘yours already, purchased for you, made for you, sealed for you, pledged to you – by the word of the Father and the ‘precious blood of Jesus!’  Apparently, Frances recognized the vicious circle that many Christians get into, struggling to feel at peace.  The harder they struggle, the less peace they feel, which makes them struggle more.  But God’s peace is a gift already given.  We don’t have to fight for it.[1]

When it comes to struggling to feel at peace, I find two dangers and one safe place. 

Danger #1.  Always struggling, never finding

Some of us are perfectionists (how many of you are married to one?).  In Frances Havergal’s day there was a rash of that amongst Christian churches.  Many were trying to be the perfect Christian.  Somehow, they’d forgotten that job had already been filled…perfectly…on Calvary. 

As Methodists we sling around the term perfection.  Sometimes we say it like the man who just announced to a worldwide audience on CNN that he had achieved perfect humility.  Rather, we are to be going on to perfection in love as John Wesley had it.  This means acting with humility, kindness, and grace towards others – NOT perfectly knowing everything and doing everything without flaw.  That’s not a possibility for fallen humans, albeit redeemed. 

Somehow, grasping at perfection, as if it is something you could master within you, misses the point Paul made about finding peace.  He spoke to real people who had the same kinds of sin problems we do; they weren’t perfect and they knew it.  So Paul told them rejoice – and then he said it a second time again…I say REJOICE.  I believe he said it in his best capital letters voice so they’d get it.  People who are forever struggling over finding peace are like folks who bring an elephant gun to a mosquito fight…they make a lot of noise, but kill very few bugs.  Struggle doesn’t produce peace; rather it’s a formula for a spiritual coronary.

Danger #2.  Hardly struggling, despairing finding peace

This is the other side of struggle as a vocation, pursuing peace as if a prize to be locked away in a trophy closet; this is fatalism, resigning to the difficulty of peace in a warring world, and writing-off having any part of it.  This is losing the desire to even pray for peace, the essence of despair, giving up! 

Paul’s letters are filled with military and athletic competition analogies.  Paul encourages us to run the race ^{(Galatians 5)}, fight a good fight ^{(1 Timothy 6)}_,  and when it comes to being God’s worker in the field, Paul encourages us to give everything we’ve got to please God. 

Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.  2 Timothy 2:15

But as God’s co-laborers, we’re not struggling to find peace; in His vineyard we are laboring to show others the Prince of Peace.  We haven’t given-up in despair and unbelief.  There, in the fields of God’s vineyard, when we labor shoulder to shoulder, not complaining, but learning to rejoice in all things, we are the very essence of the hard-working servant hearing well done, enter into thy Master’s joy…that’s a place of peace and rest!

These are two dangers, the first is always struggling, and the second is never hoping…and then:

The Safe Place – Resting in His Unchanging Grace  and finding peace like a glorious river…Always!

In the second verse of Havergal’s Like a Glorious River, we have the image of Moses hidden in the hollow place, the cleft of the rock, both metaphors for being like the children’s song, He’s Got the Whole World (where?) In His Hand. 

And covered there with the hand of God, there is no foe, surge of worry, or care, that can touch us.  Nothing can assail or corrupt God’s plans; He is entirely unhurried by both joys or sorrows and trials. 

And in that condition, you and I experience the river, gloriously and victoriously, in perfect grace and peace; it is there we experience God’s grace and peace fuller and deeper every day.

And so, to the business of the day, which the apostle Paul called the peace that passes understanding.  It’s found not in struggle, or giving up hope…that perfect peace is found in surrendering to the safe place of communion with God.  It is when we place our hand firmly in His, trusting him fully for that peace.

We do this because, as Frances Ridley Havergal understood and wrote,

they who trust him wholly find him whole true

stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,

finding, as he promised, perfect peace and rest.

This is the essence of that glorious river of communion, the peace of a heart unhurried and unworried, firmly planted in Christ, and in sweet fellowship with all who are in that communion with Jesus.

Our Prayer

As we move to this place of perfect peace and rest in communion with our blessed Lord, I want to give Frances Havergal the last word from another hymn she wrote.  The hymn is very short, but it helps us open the front-entry door to perfect communion, and thereby perfect peace:

In full and glad surrender, I give myself to thee,

Thine utterly and only, and evermore to be.

O Son of God, who lov’st me, I will be thine alone;

And all I have and am, Lord, shall henceforth be thine own.

Reign over me Lord Jesus, O make my heart thy throne;

It shall be thine, dear Savior, it shall be thine alone.

O come and reign, Lord Jesus, rule over ev’rything!

And keep me always loyal and true to thee, my King.[2]

Come, sweet Holy Spirit, embrace us with thy power and love as we dine together in perfect peace and rest.

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

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[1] Perfect Peace – Frances Ridley Havergal (Excerpted from Women in Christian History, Petersen & Shreeves)

[2] The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes, Methodist Conference Office, London, 1933, page 567 (Hymnary.org)