Peace Comes Only from God

Peace is an elusive thing. We likely seek peace through the world without thinking. We avoid people who are difficult and situations where we are uncomfortable; we resist change; we budget and look for job security; we seek out people who make us feel good; we escape into movies, the internet, and books to suspend reality for a short while; we post the perfect and cute photos on social media because no one need know that the rest is a mess. We seek to put things and people in their place, we expect others to do as they should. All of these things come to mind as what I have done and continue to do to maintain an equilibrium through the world. And you?

Priority

I have no issue with any of these things as long as they are set within a priority framework. Let me quickly say that. There is nothing inherently wrong with these things. When these things become more important than they should, they become a problem.

What kind of priority framework? God first. ‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ (Matt 6:33). The finances, the difficult people, the snapshots of our lives, all that will come with Him and from Him.

John 16:33 (NIV) ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ He knew, as we all know, that this world is troubling and difficult and messy. And here it says that what He has told us, the Word, is given to us so that we may have peace. It only comes from Him, knowing him and what he has said.

In John 16, we know that Jesus has not yet died and risen. Yet, here is says that he has overcome the world. The battle is over. The battle is won. The world has not won. The world that drives us to fear, anxiety, impatience, unforgiveness, hurt, conflict, and all that mess. But He has already conquered it. The word ‘overcome’ is unmistakably a word of war, and the winning and losing of it. It is clear that Jesus has won, and the world has lost. I think since the world has lost though Jesus yet lives, we can step into this.

Then the world has lost?

So, why does the world continue to win in our lives, on a daily basis, even hourly and minutely? I think it has everything to do with our reception of the Word and Jesus. Knowing who He is does not conquer the world within us; after all the demons know him and shudder (James 2:19). The knowledge in our heads does not suffice.

The knowledge must come from the heart. Luke 6:45 says that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. The knowledge that rests within us does not influence us or cause us to be more like Jesus. It is believing and acting on that knowledge that make us more like Him and draws us closer to Him. It is the choices that we make based on who He is that establishes the priority of God in our lives. First His kingdom and then the rest.

First, we believe and make peace with God (see here), then bible study and prayer. When we permit the Word to become part of us and we trust in Him, then the war is settled within us. Only in Him, with Him, though Him. He has overcome the world.

Peace is simple yet complex

The world, however, attacks us from every side. That is what makes this simple concept so complex. The war is not just about direct hits or ones that come from the side. We have to address the hits from the past and the present and even what we consider about the future. We have to address from within and without. That is why it is a topic for the year.

So, I turn back to the verse from Luke (6:45), ‘A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.’ I think the good referenced here is the Word. So, I seek to fill my heart with the Word, that good may come from it.

What are your most common ways of seeking peace of the world? Will you share below?