Axis for Organizing Peace and Security

S

(Romans 5:1) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

O

Previously, Paul argued that all humanity was engaged in willful resistance against God, war against our Creator, the lover of our souls. Here, we see something far more--infinitely more--disturbing: God's angry resistance against us! It's too frightening to grasp. Our bellicose nature, our belligerent behaviors justified His own warfare against us. Our positioning God as our enemy has put humanity into a not very bright condition and an even worse future. But Jesus Christ--Himself--is our peace, having broken the wall of hostility between us and God, having reconciled us back to God through the cross. The war is over. We have peace (Ephesians 2:11-22; Romans 5:6-11).

A (Psychological)

Clinicians Prochaska and Norcross acknowledge their double bind of not expecting to find "absolute truth" in psychotherapy despite impressive advances in knowledge while on the other hand simultaneously holding a contrary need for a guiding theory or system of psychotherapy that "delimits the amount of relevant information, organizes that information, and integrates it all into a coherent body of knowledge that prioritizes our conceptualization and directs our treatment" (Systems of Psychotherapy, 2003, pp. 5,6). Similarly, on a universal human level, Daniel Siegel (Developing Mind, 1999, p 67-72) defined attachment as our brain's need to learn how to organize and respond to the input it receives: "attachment is an inborn system in the brain that evolves in ways that influence and organize motivational, emotional, and memory processes. [It organizes it] with respect to significant caregiving figures. This process of attachment to significant caregivers helps immature brains establish an interpersonal relationship that helps the immature brain use the mature functions of the parent's brain to organize its own processes." Attachments are ultimately seen as secure or insecure, from that, the brain defines the world a safe or unsafe. This "faith" of perception affects the literal development of the physical brain just as it organizes how it perceives and interacts with people and the world.

Through Jesus Christ, we have opportunity for forming a secure attachment to the ultimate caregiver. As we attach to Him (abide in Him), the Holy Spirit helps our brains reorganize our perceptions, aligning them with reality ("ultimate truth"). In the context of Paul's statement to the Romans, our world is insecure and unsafe because of its opposition to God. Through faith in Christ, because of His cross having reconciled us with God, we are justified before Him. We can now have a safe attachment to Him, and with that "abiding" our brains can be healed. The proof is us now living peacefully because of the mutual love between God and people.

A (Personal)

I've experienced the pain of having an enemy. Thankfully, Jesus showed me life beyond those dark designs. As painful as that experience was, it demonstrated how utterly inconceivably terrifying life would be for me if God were my enemy. In our world, with its abundant forms of warfare, both internal and relational, peace is a much sought but rarely secured treasure. But God ... God Himself arranged for us to have true and abiding peace. Even when we were warring against Him, He demonstrated His love and commitment to us by sending His own beloved Son to the cross so we could be reconciled. Having obtained that peace, all other conflicts are trivial and easily remedied.

P

Beloved Savior, because You justified me by Your cross, I get to spend this day in peace. Because You provided for my peace at such a great personal cost, I hold on to it tightly and I resist letting it slip away through this day's deceptive worries, distractions, and deceptions. I choose instead to enjoy Your peace, and I love it!