Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Philippians 4:7
There is more to peace than we might think. Here are four things about peace that can give us peace of mind.
No Peace Without God
Before we were saved, we really didn’t have peace of mind, did we? No, most of us pillowed our head at night not having the peace that believers do. This is why Isaiah wrote, “The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace” (Isaiah 59:8). The fact is, “’There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked‘” (Isaiah 57:21) because “the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud” (Isaiah 57:20). Not a very settling picture, is it?
Being at Peace With God
You cannot have the peace of God until you are first at peace with God, and there is no peace with God until you have been justified by Christ. Paul writes this very fact in Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s all the more reason to “rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rom. 5:11).
Being a Peacemaker for God
Most people outside of Christ are not peacemakers. If you watch any of these daytime talks shows (which I don’t)–and I mean the controversial ones–they seem to want to stir up anger and hatred. The liberal media seems bent on inciting our nation to anger and riot, but Jesus reserves a very special blessing on those who are peacemakers. He said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons (and daughters) of God.”
Being at Peace with Your Enemies
Jesus tells us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44) in order “that you may be sons (and daughters) of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45) because “when a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Prov. 16:7). We might never be more like God than when we pray for and love our enemies because remember that “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10a).
Conclusion
The peace of God surpasses all human understanding, and this peace of God will guard both our hearts (emotional seat) and our minds (intellectual seat) because we have made peace with God through Jesus Christ’s death.
