"Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth."
-Matthew Henry
Peace in the world has always been a great desire of nations but unfortunately when you
have groups like the Council on Foreign Relations or the Bilderbergers or the Trilateral
Commission who engineer wars behind the scenes for profit and world domination, peace on
earth is only a delusion. Did you know that Hitler was funded by Wall Street to build his
Third Reich? Ask the question, where did an unknown corporal, in the midst of the worst
depression in Germany get all that money to build a nation from scratch? The result was
World War 2 with 50 million dead and billions of dollars in debt and destruction. There
has been no peace on this earth because of wars breaking out somewhere in the world at any
time.
The reason that peace cannot exist in this world is sin. The world is in rebellion to
God and where there is rebellion against God there is no peace. (Isa 57:21 KJV) There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. This is why we see people driving like
lunatics on the highways. Do you know of anyone who just cannot stay put for 5 minutes
without having to move or do something? What about those who just can’t put their
feet up for 5 minutes without feeling guilty? We see a world in a literal "on the
move" hysteria succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent.
What about the Christian? The Bible teaches us that we have peace with God. This is our
positional peace which means we are no longer at war with God and hostilities have ceased.
We are no longer under the wrath of God but are now Children of God. (Rom 5:1 KJV) Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: The
word peace in the Greek is the word "Eirene" which means "peace, harmony or
tranquillity." The Bible states that we have the positional peace but what about the
possessional peace? Do you know of any Christians who just refuse to take it easy and feel
they must always be doing something? They have not learned to relax and are not possessing
one of the greatest possessions God has given us and that is personal peace. (Psa 29:11
KJV) The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with
peace.
We can experience this personal peace in our lives when we bring our thought life, our
goals, and our desires in concert with the Scriptures. We sacrifice personal peace in our
life whenever we try to do an end around run in our daily lives. Instead of ordering our
lives in accordance with the Scriptures, we make little adjustments here and there which
cause us to go off track and then we wonder why there is no peace in our life. When trying
to understand the peace that God gives the Christian always keep in mind the following
fact: Christian peace is never external but only internal. While conditions may be
tranquil or tumultuous surrounding the Christian, we can experience that peace in our
spirit. Peace is a synonym for salvation when pertaining to Christians but it is also a
state which the believer exists in while on this earth. Christian peace is not equivalent
to an "I don’t care what happens" attitude. Christian peace requires a
heavy trust in God realizing that all our situations are in His hands and that worrying
does not accomplish anything. Worrying is the toll gate for the highway of unbelief. If
worry continues in a believer’s life for a period of time it has some serious
repercussions:
1. It sets the stage for doubt
2. It can cause you to lose your testimony
3. It can lead to physical sickness
4. It causes you to lose the joy of your salvation
5. God will seem far away and not in control because you will begin to filter all your
life’s events through the eyes of worry.
The word "worry" comes for a Lithuanian word which means "to
constrict," and a German word which means "to strangle." Worry really
strangles a believer’s life and robs them of the peace which God intends for every
Christian regardless of the social status or situation they are in. Remember, you are
where you are not because of "chance" or "fate" but God’s plan
for your life. At this juncture I would like to offer some characteristics of the peace
which God bestows upon His children.
Worldly Peace is not Christ’s Peace
(John 14:27 KJV) 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.
The world gives temporary quiet like a vacation or a nap but it never can give a
believer a sustaining state of peace. Notice in this verse the Lord Jesus is specifically
making a distinction between the peace He gives and that of the world. He is admonishing
us that our hearts should not be troubled or afraid. That word afraid means
"cowardly, timid or fearful." Christians are going to face many diverse
situations in their life and with the peace of the Lord Jesus as an undergirding constant,
those circumstances can be faced with confidence and not strangling fear. Allowing this
verse to be a lifestyle rather than a verse for mere recital will give the Christian
strength in the most adverse circumstances.
God’s Peace is permanent and we don’t understand it
(Phil 4:7 KJV) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Here is a major principle of divine peace. God’s peace is not an intermittent item
instead it is a permanent gift which ministers to both the mind and the heart which is the
essence of the person. Peace is a great inheritance bestowed upon the believer and God
does not remove it for any reason. We can breach that peace by coming against it with
worldly attitudes but we can never remove it from our lives because it is a great tenet of
salvation and a permanent fixture. If you are not experiencing the peace of God, then you
have allowed some type of worldly attitude to creep in and rob you of your inheritance.
All you need do is some introspection in your life and ask God to show you where you have
departed off the "path of peace" and then go back and fix the hole in the dam
and reclaim your inheritance.
We still think we are at war with God
(Rom 5:1 KJV) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ:
I will never comprehend why some Christians still live as though they are still under
the wrath of God. The cross of Christ has satisfied the demands of God’s righteous
law on behalf of the elect and therefore the curse of the law has been removed. The
penalty of eternal damnation is no longer applied to the Christian. Yet we slavishly serve
God to try and please Him with our works. God is satisfied with His children because of
what the Lord Jesus did for His elect. (Isa 62:3-4 KJV) Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. {4} Thou shalt
no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou
shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married. The war between you and God is over and permanent,
eternal peace has been established on your behalf if you are a true child of God. So live
and rejoice in that peace, even when things are going wrong.
God’s Peace is for the Believer Only
(Gal 6:16 KJV) And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God.
God’s peace is bestowed only upon the believers and not upon those in the world.
(Isa 48:22 KJV) There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
If we look at this verse and interpret the peace in the light of either salvation or the
peace which accompanies salvation, we see that the wicked are excluded and will only face
the wrath of God and in this world they will face turmoil. (Prov 13:15 KJV) Good
understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard. The difference
between the believer facing problems and the unbeliever facing problems is the unbeliever
faces them on their own whereby the believer can count on the Lord going before them into
battle. It is this type of assurance which gives the believer that peace. God said through
Hosea that His people perish for lack of knowledge and the lack of knowledge we have in
Christianity concerning our salvation and the things which accompany it is pandemic.
(Psa 37:37 KJV) Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is
peace. (1/14/01)