God Our Peace

Peace: it’s something we all long for, but is often so elusive. Funny how we create so much activity, chaos, and busyness trying to find it. Unfortunately, as in so many areas of life, we attempt to move beyond our human capacity and do what only God can. We try to exercise ultimate control over ourselves, our circumstances, our lives. In the end, this strategy forfeits the very peace we seek, leaving us frazzled.

Isaiah 9:6 prophecies the future coming of Christ, and calls him the “Prince of Peace.” He reigns over peace itself. The same verse names him “Mighty God.” As Lord over everything, his serenity makes logical sense. He can control all things. Nothing can overpower him, so there's never a cause for him to be alarmed.

Throughout Old and New Testament Scripture, God displays himself as the supplier of peace, both inward and outward. Christ made a path to peace with God for us through his death on the cross, paying for the forgiveness of our sins. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NIV). For those who have been reconciled to God, he offers continual rest that endures through the blows of life. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3–4). He also enables us to have peace with each other by teaching us how to love. 1 Corinthians 12:24–25 demonstrates this: “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its part should have equal concern for each other.”

If in humility we recognize our finite nature—the bounds of our humanness in contrast to God’s divinity—we can walk in sync with him, receiving from him what we cannot achieve for ourselves: peace. He gives us peace, and as Ephesians 2:14 says, “He himself is our peace.” It's with this in mind that we can finally be at rest: “Cease striving and know that [He is] God” (Psalm 46:10, NASB).