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The summer is my favourite time of year. At its height, the summer gives way to a light breeze, green trees and blissful sunshine. However, anyone living in the UK for long enough knows that the weather is rarely so forgiving. From snow in the spring to torrential downpours in Summer, English weather surprises us in the most wonderful of ways. I often think to myself, "Couldn't we have one day of peace!" I typically think that:
I have personal ownership of peace.
My peace can be (and often is) disrupted.
Peace can be stolen or taken away.
The problem is that there is more than one kind of peace. When I'm mad about mildly bad weather, what I want is 'worldly peace.' However, in light of recent events in the world, the type of peace that I believe is needed reaches much further than sipping piña coladas in the Caribbean.
What is Peace?
A definition
As by the dictionary, the definitions are:
"The state of being calm or quiet." (Oxford Learner)
"Harmony in personal relations." (Merriam-Webster)
"...A period of time in which there is no war or violence." (Oxford Learner)
I don't know about you, but I lovesome calm and quiet (1). However, calm and quiet can be quite selfish; "The world is burning, but at least I've got my peace!". Even at it's best, peace and quiet are fleeting; In our modern world, it's almost impossible to experience true calm, let alone quiet (I have a lot of siblings, trust me.) Now, just because it is worldly, does not mean that it is worthless. Jesus discloses that "...when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. (Mat. 6:6a)" Having times without external distraction is important, and beneficial to functioning well. In Jesus' case, we are told that "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mrk. 1:35)" However, Jesus didn't seek quiet as a selfish pursuit, but as a sacrifice. The specialness of the time with his father transcended the comfort of an extra hour in bed.
Harmony between people (2) can also suffer from being shallow. If you make peace with someone you know without ever challenging their ideals, you are betraying yourself. I'm not saying don't make peace with people; On par with loving Jesus, Christ says the greatest commandment is to "...Love your neighbour as yourself. (Mat. 22:39)" But truly loving your neighbour allows for you to challenge what they stand for.
World peace (3) is probably the most problematic. Not only is it the most elusive, but the most exploited. Financially rich countries have used treaties in the past to prey on and exploit countries who have nowhere to turn.
So are we doomed then, to a world devoid of peace? Why is peace often so corrupt? Of course not! I believe the problem lies in the human heart. Jeremiah describes that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)" As compromised people, deceit it weasels itself into our decisions. With God, however, he answers our brokenness, with his sacrifice - He traded his broken body for our freedom.
Pt. 1: Wholeness.
God's peace
In the Bible, the most frequent words for peace are Shalom(שָׁלֽוֹם׃) and Eirene (εἰρήνη). These words mean to make whole, or to prosper. When you are in a state of completeness, you don't need anything else. It also calls for a better thing in its place. But that's not all; Ephesians 2:14a says this about Christ:
"For He Himself is our peace,(NKJV)"
Or, as another translation puts it:
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. (NLT)"
Christ is our peace because only he is able to make us whole. In him, we find the complete human we all have failed to be. The world makes us feel like peace is an object that we obtain, but that can't be the case with God. We can't own Christ, we can only be a part of who he is.
Because we are incomplete, in God's mercy we find peace. Luke says "Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about... to give light to those who sit in darkness... and to guide us to the path of peace. (Luke 1:78-79)” As Jesus himself is the "light of the world (John 8:12") We find that God's peace starts in his mercy. None of us has earned such a peace; We have been granted access to it by God's grace. Second of all, God's peace is a path, and so a continual process. To define peace as a destination wouldn't be right, because we have to pursue it.
So where can we find this continual pursuit of peace in our daily lives?
Pt.2: Biblical Example.
Applied knowledge.
In Mark 4, we find the story of the calming of the storm. When Christ was with his disciples, he said to them “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” (Vv.35b) In this statement, we find about how God's wisdom should guide our continual peace:
1. Divine Perspective: Jesus led them into what he knew would be a storm. From a worldly perspective, this makes no sense. The disciples had no foreknowledge of what was about to happen. And yet, they all simply just obeyed. Peace recognises Christ as your leader, no matter where that takes you.
2. Divine Protection: Psalm 46:1 says: "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble." Knowing this verse, I always used to bash on the disciples on the boat. How could they not trust Jesus that he would deliver them? But now, I sympathise, as I know that trust in worldly knowledge often gets in the way of faith. God's power was greater than the storm, but because they didn't fully trust who Christ was yet, their incomplete faith gave permission for the storm to prevail. However, I think that the disciples did the right thing, In my opinion; They went to Christ when they were in trouble. We bash the disciples for having weak faith, but they were two things: Desperate and honest. They were honest with Christ about how they felt and it allowed for God to move. When we trust that God will protect us, and are honest before God when our peace fails, then God is able to strengthen us.
3. Divine Responsibility: It seems awfully irresponsible of Jesus as a leader to lead his disciples into a storm. However, Jesus didn't send them alone, neither did he send them without preparation; Jesus spoke prophetically. He did not say, "I want to cross over", He said "Let us". God invites us to His promises, but we have to be listening to hear them.
However, for this to take place, you need to know and trust what God is saying. This means dedicating yourself to prayer and reading the Bible, but specifically praying to hear God's voice more clearly and to receive revelation from him. Pray also for the wisdom to trust his promises when they are not necessarily reflected in our lives. As a continual journey, the longer you spend with God and his word, the more that your peace will grow.
Trusting God is better understood as faith, and as we trust what he is saying, we are at ease that he will stay true to his promises. But what does faith have to do with peace? I mean we are so far from sipping piña colada's in the Caribbean, that faith's role isn't so plain.
Pt. 3: Faith & God's Love
Christ's Peace.
God's peace has to be rooted in faith. If Christ is our peace, we first have to believe he is who he says he is. In this way, faith is rooted in love; 1 Corinthians 13:7: "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
If you are truly rooted in God's Love, then the faith develops to trust in verses like Romans 8:28: "And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."
As faith ties into his love, one thing becomes clear: Peace isn't the absence of trouble. Just before his death, Jesus earnestly prayed to The Father that he wouldn't have to go through with what he knew was about to take place. Even in this he submitted to God's will, and did so alone as his closest friends were sleeping in his hour of need.
Talk about calm and quiet! Jesus laid down his will and his life to serving the purposes of humanity, and yet is called The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). It is in God's love that He sacrificed comfort to release peace into the lives of others. This allows for a faith that trusts that God loved us enough in the first place to lay down his life for us.
Instead of finding peace in being comfortable, we find comfort in becoming more like Christ, however uncomfortable that may be. However, as a continuous path, this is something that not only takes persistence but discipline.
Pt.4: Discipline
Faith & Discipline in Christ
in Matthew 14, Jesus and Peter walk on water. after spending time alone in prayer, Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the water. Peter said to Jesus "Lord if it is really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water." (vv.28) **and Jesus said "Come". Then, vv.29-30 says: “So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted."
The opposite of faith isn't doubt, it's fear. Here, Peter's focus started on Jesus, but he let it waver when he started to focus on both the ridiculousness of what he was doing, alongside the water and the waves.
All the same elements from the previous story are present: Jesus gave a word and an act of faith followed. But if we keep going, in both cases, when things went wrong, People first went to God when their faith started failing.
There's a part of this story that recently I had my mind blown concerning it. When Peter asked for Jesus to prove who he was, he only said: "Come." He never addressed Peter specifically, and all the other disciples had the opportunity to step out in faith onto the water.
Faith reinforces peace. The first part of faith is simply stepping out and starting to walk in it. God has given a universal invitation for all of us to do so. Don't wait for a sibling, your best friend or your clique to move. You move, and God will continue to work and sustain you.
Now all of this is well and good, but if you are convinced that peace is possible by simply will-power ( which is part of it), then you are mistaken. The last, or in my opinion, the first piece of the puzzle is The Holy Spirit.
Pt.5: The Holy Spirit
Daily Peace
The Holy Spirit! ... has had some really crap PR. From misinformation to His name, no wonder people find it hard to accept The Holy Spirit. We only really need 2 scriptures here, both of which are from Paul. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,"
Dang! Thank goodness Paul is blunter than I ever could be. God instructs us that our bodies are not our own, as just as life was given to us, so were our bodies. But Paul isn't just trying to challenge the people in Corinth, he's revealing to them a profound truth: The Holy Spirit lives inside every believer. In the old testament, The Holy Spirit lived inside the temple, but by Jesus' death, He allowed for The Spirit to live in us. Do you know what this means? Our bodies are a holy place that God lives inside. Because of His Spirit, by his mercy, he gives us the gift of the fruit of His Spirit. God's Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It is a gift of God that is instigated by the Holy Spirit. The way we experience peace is by asking for it. Peace isn't just a thing God experiences, his peace is a part of his character. So by asking for The Holy Spirit to guide and sustain us, we are asking for his peace.
This is what we would call prayer. Paul makes it even plainer on how we can pray for the Holy Spirit's help in Philippians 4:6-7: "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
There are three instructions here:
Pray about everything.
Ask him what you need.
Thank him for what he has done.
It's important to say that God isn't our personal spiritual philanthropist, who gives us whatever we want when you want. You may feel you don't have peace because you don't have a £50M house. God isn't necessarily going to give you a house so that you have peace. Peace is intrinsic to your heart and mind. When you live in Christ and pray in this way, you may not feel at peace once away, but one of the worst ways to check if you have peace is by saying to yourself, "Am I at peace?". Instead, we live in faith, in knowing that God will give us what we need, even if it's not what we want. This peace of the heart translates to our peace with others, as The Holy Spirit begins to transform our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
❤️❤️❤️
Many have assigned 2020 as a write-off. With the amount of destruction, loss and injustice, peace seems extremely far away from the world, and I have experienced this same feeling. However, these two verses have helped me:
'We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)" This is from Paul's letter, who was thrown in prison, beaten multiple times on multiple occasions (with the same pronged whip as Jesus), shipwrecked, and placed under house arrest. These are not the words of an optimistic naïve Christian ignoring the troubles of the world; He died for his faith. But in this way, 'Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. (vs.10)"
For me, as a Christian, this is the ultimate ideal. I hate discomfort as much as anyone, and the amount of loss in the world right now breaks my heart. But as Christians, we find peace in finding meaning in that pain, that like as Paul, believed, '... if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. (Philippians 1:22a)" The pain in our world is an indication more of what I'm able to do, than what I'm not.
When I acknowledge the pain, instead of relaxing, motivated by ignorance, I pick myself up, and say that though I am pressed, but not crushed, and in this, I find God's peace.
I pray that in this testing time, that you would know God's peace. that he would motivate us to find comfort in his promises, and encourage us to help others, and advance his kingdom on earth.
Amen ❤️
Here are a couple of videos I watched in writing this, and I hope they are helpful:
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