By John Thiel

Is peace deep inside of you or are there little anxieties and frictions that spoil?  I have experienced that with the time in which we live, and especially as we head towards the time of the end that brings more pressure, we need to be constantly reminded of the source of our peace. The message in this study is nothing new but to refresh our memory with because we need to apply it. In my experience in labouring in the kingdom of heaven on earth I find that souls often get plunged into that loss of peace and then they find it difficult to lift themselves back out of it again.  We need to remind ourselves how we can come back to the perfect peace. If we look to the king of peace we will understand how it is to be placed upon us.

“Learn of Me,” says Jesus; “for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest.” We are to enter the school of Christ, to learn from Him meekness and lowliness. Redemption is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven. This training means a knowledge of Christ. It means emancipation from ideas, habits, and practices that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from all that is opposed to loyalty to God.  {DA 330.2}

In the heart of Christ, where reined perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace..  {DA 330.3}

Here is the true source of peace in a heart where perfect harmony with God reigns, there is perfect peace.

He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage..  {DA 330.3}

Is not the case where our peace goes out the door when we are bombarded by negativities of others around us?  Where censure troubles our spirit, where disappointment creates a troubled spirit?  Where there is opposition and cruel treatment and to still have peace?

…many who profess to be His followers have an anxious, troubled heart, because they are afraid to trust themselves with God.  {DA 330.3}

Is that possible?  If you examine it, if I am anxious and any anxiety I retain is because I am afraid to trust myself with God.  We don’t want to admit that but it is really the kernel of the problem.  If I feel anxious it is because I have not got a hold on my circumstances. I have not got a hold on my senses of security. Where is my security to come from?  Isn’t from God himself?  Hasn’t he proved himself as being a trustworthy person?  The real reason for anxiety is because I do not make a complete surrender to him.

They do not make a complete surrender to Him; for they shrink from the consequences that such a surrender may involve. Unless they do make this surrender, they cannot find peace.  {DA 330.3}

A total surrender into the arms of God provides peace.  Reflect upon the realities that are taking place within me and to find that channel every moment of the day to release my anxieties, to find absolute peace.

When temptations assail you, when care, perplexity, and darkness seem to surround your soul, look to the place where you last saw the light. {MH 250.1}

Can you remember being in darkness when you last saw the light?  Instead of plunging myself into the negativity that is pressing upon my soul, I can deliberately choose to look to the place where I last found my peace and joy.

Rest in Christ’s love and under His protecting care. When sin struggles for the mastery in the heart, when guilt oppresses the soul and burdens the conscience, when unbelief clouds the mind, remember that Christ’s grace is sufficient to subdue sin and banish the darkness. {MH 250.1}

This is our problem.  When we are under guilt of having failed, we often want to get rid of that feeling from a different source that can only be found with Christ.  When I am under a burden of my conscious, here and then I must remember Christs grace is sufficient to subdue that sin.

Entering into communion with the Saviour, we enter the region of peace. MH 250

Is this not true that we need to remind ourselves of all the time?  When we are harassed in our mind by some kind of interference by someone else by someone around me, that you find it difficult to pull yourself out of that? We must be reminded of the channel by which we can come out of it.  It is a resolve, a choice inside of me that says here I go, I am going down.  Instead of just plunging myself into that feeling of depressive circumstances, I need to see what is happening to me and deliberately with a fist clenching choice, look the other way. I know too well because I have had to deal with this in my own life and as I see others struggling.  Isn’t it within that these things happen?  We permit the negativities around us to oppress us within.  When that has happened, we find it impossible to snap out of that oppressive circumstance.  At that time we are only nursing our anxiety and stress.  We nurse.  I feel sorry for myself and what others are doing to me.  I need to cease nursing myself, from involving myself in the negativities of thought, as soon as a negativity comes into your system, you know it shouldn’t be.  Instead of getting upset that it is there, it only plunges you deeper.  Instead of getting upset the thing is there, immediately reflect upon the lord.  Look at what Jesus says.

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Instead of staying with my miserable condition, leave it and come to him.  That is what anxiety is.  That is what a struggle of heart oppression is – labour. This is the reason why we are weary when oppressed because we weary when labouring.  It saps your energy.  Jesus says don’t stay there, come to me.  It’s guaranteed you will find peace, it’s a reality.  I don’t forget the moments of anxiety and weeping with tears flowing because of the horrendous mind exercises that caused the tears to come.  The voice came and said, weeping as though you wept not.  As soon as that comes the source of the weeping is gone.  It is like when I was massaging my little brothers feet as he had a terrible earache that he was weeping with pain.  It was so painful he was weeping all the more.  After 5 to 10 minutes his pain turned to laughter as his pain went.  As we apply the words of Jesus to our strain pained heart, it changes.  It will not continue to burden, it will disperse.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Whatever troubles your conscious, your burdened heart, the attacks of people around you, not being understood, whatever it is, let not your heart be troubled because the peace I give is different to the peace the world gives. Jesus says come unto me.  Depart from where you are.  Come to me.  If I am in a depth of despondency I must leave the despondency and come to him.  It must be a deliberate action.  In these beautiful words of Jesus of why I should leave it there is profound because of the atonement.  It must be the constant thing operating in our minds.

Abiding peace, true rest of spirit, has but one Source. It was of this that Christ spoke when He said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” John 14:27. This peace is not something that He gives apart from Himself. It is in Christ, and we can receive it only by receiving Him.  {MH 247.1}

It is that precious experience of this wonderful Jesus right close inside of me.  That is why our hymn expressed it.  Far away in the depths of my spirit roles a melody deep. If you examine it closely as the believer you are, as you ponder on your last depressive state, you will discover that you have been engaging in externals because deep inside there are perfect answers, you’ve experienced it before.  Jesus is there because the holy spirit has brought him there.  Instead of engaging in the flesh, in the externals, deep inside.  He is in there.  That is what is expressed. The peace is not something he gives apart from himself, it is in Christ and we can only receive by receiving him.

Christ is the wellspring of life. That which many need is to have a clearer knowledge of Him; they need to be patiently and kindly, yet earnestly, taught how the whole being may be thrown open to the healing agencies of heaven. When the sunlight of God’s love illuminates the darkened chambers of the soul, restless weariness and dissatisfaction will cease, and satisfying joys will give vigour to the mind and health and energy to the body.  {MH 247.2}

It is a beautiful reality and we know we’ve experienced it.  We have t remember when we are plunged again into negativity.  Look back where you last saw the light.  How did I get it last time?

A Sense of Closeness of Jesus

Psalm 27:1 [A Psalm] of David. The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Not even of yourself.  If he is my light and my salvation, why do I plunge into a sense of restless insecurity.  He is the light of my life.  A sense of the closeness of one who is bigger than me, isn’t that where you find peace? I remember as a child, if I was terribly upset and my mother took me upon her bosom, someone bigger than me, and released me from my stress. There was perfect comfort to wake up out of a sick feeling.  I remember lying in my bed with the flu and my mother would come and give me medicine, it was a relief to know she was there.  That is what Jesus must be to all of us.  Someone bigger than I is close to me and that I can totally plunge myself into his comfort.

Do we well to be thus unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend; all heaven is interested in our welfare; and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We should not indulge in a solicitude that only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials..  {PP 294.1}

If I fret, it saps me of my energy.  We should not indulge in that. No place should be given to that distrust of God which leads us to make a preparation against future want the chief pursuit of life, as though our happiness consisted in these earthly things. It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care. But our Lord does not tell us that there are no dangers in our path. He does not propose to take His people out of the world of sin and evil, but He points us to a never-failing refuge. He invites the weary and care-laden, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Lay off the yoke of anxiety and worldly care that you have placed on your own neck, and “take My yoke upon you,

We may find rest and peace in God, casting all our care upon Him; for He careth for us. See 1 Peter 5:7.  {PP 294.1}

We can often apply that in the big things of life, but when it comes to the things I introduce, when people annoy me, when the faultiness of others around me grate on me and oppress me, that is just as important a time as the other to lay off.

He who took humanity upon Himself knows how to sympathize with the sufferings of humanity. Not only does Christ know every soul, and the peculiar needs and trials of that soul, but He knows all the circumstances that chafe and perplex the spirit. His hand is outstretched in pitying tenderness to every suffering child. Those who suffer most have most of His sympathy and pity. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and He desires us to lay our perplexities and troubles at His feet and leave them there.  {MH 249.3}

Didn’t Jesus go through the same thing we go through?  We believe it don’t we?  That he had sinful flesh?  As all the chromosome material of humanity was stirred.  Jesus understands my peculiar needs as a individual.  As you suffer and then feel guilty because you are suffering, don’t feel guilty for that. Leave it there.  How many times we’ve prayed Lord, please save me from my problems and we talk about and them and don’t’ leave them there.  If Satan comes along with the thoughts and presses them upon us, we bring them to Jesus and leave them behind.  Jesus was there, he was in the pit with me, and he suffered every aspect of our sin.  Even the sense of guilt but he battled his way through until he was finally there on the cross and he said into your hands I commend my spirit.  We must do this every time.

When Jesus was awakened to meet the storm, He was in perfect peace. There was no trace of fear in word or look, for no fear was in His heart. But He rested not in the possession of almighty power. It was not as the “Master of earth and sea and sky” that He reposed in quiet. That power He had laid down, and He says, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30. He trusted in the Father’s might. It was in faith–faith in God’s love and care–that Jesus rested, and the power of that word which stilled the storm was the power of God.  {DA 336.1}

Why was he so peaceful?  He trusted in the father.

As Jesus rested by faith in the Father’s care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. Their fear in the time of danger revealed their unbelief. In their efforts to save themselves, they forgot Jesus; and it was only when, in despair of self-dependence, they turned to Him that He could give them help.  {DA 336.2}

Every time this happens to you, that you are trying to deal with your problem, remember you forgot Jesus.

How often the disciples’ experience is ours! When the tempests of temptation gather, and the fierce lightnings flash, and the waves sweep over us, we battle with the storm alone, forgetting that there is One who can help us.  {DA 336.3}

Where is he?  Right in the boat with us.  We often say, we’re in the same boat.  Jesus came down to this world to be in the same boat. Let not your heart be troubled or afraid.  What does that mean?  It was to be afraid.  No it can’t, don’t let it.  As it comes to you, don’t let it.  Thoughts and feelings that annoy even the best of men that you will even feel that your own heart condemns you.

1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

When my heart condemns me, I can release myself in total trust because my father is greater than my heart.

Amen.