Peace That Passes All Understanding

So, I said after sharing the facts and account of our traumatic car wreck, to be encouraged because God showed up and just as promised, I’m here to tell you when we first saw Him. You may have read my last post and seriously asked how? How can one find the joy of the Lord during such a living hell and pain, in the face of literal death? And like I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, it was there. Specifically, I want to share with you about the indescribable peace I mentioned that washed over our traumatic circumstances, there in the actual midst of our current reality.

Peace is mentioned throughout the Bible, but it is Paul while in prison (yes, you read that right) that describes it my favorite way. You see, Paul was persecuted for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was thrown in prison and was to be put to death for his conviction. It was while he was there that he wrote many of the promises that we recite and stand on today. As he was writing to the church to encourage them, again amidst his very own current reality of suffering (prison for goodness sakes), he wrote to them about peace. In Philippians 4:6-7 he writes, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Peace that passes all understanding? Wow! We’ve all heard of that peace, we always pray for others to have it when they are going through unimaginable hurts, and we talk about it often, but really, I had never experienced such a peace than I did the night of the car collision.

I know you saw that I mentioned fear several times during my account of the wreck. Fear is an appropriate response considering such a scary situation, right? Well actually, no. At least Paul didn’t seem to think so. Fear is not of God. Notice the verse above first mentions to be anxious for nothing, but in EVERYTHING (even those circumstances that warrant you to feel afraid) with thanksgiving, pray to God for what you need, THEN the peace that surpasses all understanding will come and cover your circumstance to choke out fear.

I remember, again, feeling the worst fear as a mother of the possibility of losing my children, and I didn’t so I can’t say how I would have reacted if so, but when thanksgiving rushed in that they were alive, it was then that the peace came. I remember honestly thinking I was going to die, and in the face of death, I felt nothing but thanksgiving unto God for not only preserving the lives of my husband and children, but also most importantly that I knew Him. I was so thankful right there on the side of the highway, in the middle of the unknown, that despite whether I lived or died, I was confident that He is so He says He is, and that because I believed and received the gift of Jesus-His son that He sent to cover me and to make a way for me through His grace to receive a life beyond this one I am currently living-I couldn’t help but THANK Him in that moment. It was after that prayer, and realistically it was more like a shout, of thanksgiving that the peace whooshed in like I had never felt it before.
I looked at my family and I said to them, “I don’t think that I am going to make it, but I want you to know that it’s going to be okay”. And just as sure as you are reading those words, I truly believed them. I can’t describe to you the peace in knowing that to be true. Admittedly being such an anxious, “high strung” person, that in the most traumatic experience of my life, I would have never thought I would react in such a way. My husband later said that was the calmest he has ever seen me. I can’t explain it any other way but through God. May the peace OF GOD that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. God through Jesus is the only way to even begin to describe and experience true peace.

My other favorite mention of peace in the Bible is from Jesus himself. He says in John 14:27 “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.” THIS is the peace that covered me, peace not of this world, but peace from the Son of God, Jesus himself, that drove out fear and passed beyond my understanding of my experience. Peace like that, the kind I dare say we all wish to have, only comes through Jesus and I for one am beyond thankful that through His grace, I have access to such a thing that I was able to tap in to during such a time.