The most sought-after word in terms of political and spiritual realms in this world is peace. We all want peace. Not only we wanted peace, but we also wanted to project ourselves as a peace-loving person At the same time we wanted to be someone who possessed peace despite life’s circumstances.
Our utmost desire for peace, in fact, corrupted our minds because we thought we could achieve peace through wealth, power, and status.
I wrote a chapter in my book, ‘The Audacity of Wants.’
But here, I would like to discuss peace in three, but a necessary combination to our living.
Peace with God:
It must start with peace with God. This is spiritual peace — and it’s the most important. It affects everything else. When we have God, we know how gracious and merciful our God is. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18, God sent Christ to make peace or reconciliation between himself and us.
God doesn’t want us to live disconnected from him. Peace with God doesn’t come from something we do. We cannot earn peace with God it is only because he first loved us that we have peace with him.
Peace with God comes from what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 God wants to give you that When we exercise our free will to accept Jesus Christ as our only Lord and Savior, we have peace with God. And thereby becoming a new creation in him.
Peace within:
The Bible has a word for this: emotional peace. It’s called the peace of God. When I have peace with God, then I get the peace of God inside me. Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (NIV). God wants his peace to rule in our lives.
The Hebrew word for “peace” in the Bible is shalom. You may have heard this word if you’re not a new believer, but already in the community. Shalom means more than just the ending of hostilities.
In fact, you’ll find more than 700 verses about the peace of God in Scripture. For those with broken hearts, God gives us comforting peace. For those with a confused heart, he gives us guiding peace. For those with a shamed heart, he gives us forgiving peace. When we have a worried heart, he gives us confident peace.
Thus, God provides peace for every problem!
Peace with Others:
We were often judged by this peace. It is because it shows the peace inside us as we deal with other people. However, many things come into play in maintaining peace with others.
This is the offering of relational peace. Yes, we must maintain peaceful co-existence with everyone, especially our brothers and sister in the same faith.
The Bible says in Ephesians 2:16, “Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death” (NLT, second edition)
The farther we are from God, the more our relationships with others are messed up. If you want to strengthen your relationship with others — like your spouse or your kids — strengthen your relationship with God. It’ll pull you together.
The only way to have lasting peace is peace with God. All this peace is the result of humility, suffering, crucifixion or sacrificial death on the cross, and resurrection or victory over the world by the work of Jesus Christ who is the son of the Living God.
