The Gift of Peace

 

“What peace can they have who are not at peace with God?”  

                                                                    Matthew Henry 

Two artists set out to paint a picture that was to represent perfect peace. The first painted a canvas depicting a carefree boy sitting in a boat on a little lake without a ripple to disturb the surface. The other though painted a raging waterfall, winds whipping spray about. Yet on a limb, overhanging the swirling water, a bird had built its nest and sat peacefully brooding over her eggs. Here she was safe from predatory enemies and though surrounded by the roaring falls, she was totally at peace.
  Peace isn’t just the absence of conflict. In fact, peace is best appreciated and understood when conflicts raged all around.
  Alexander Maclaren said, “However profound and real that Divine peace is, it is to be enjoyed in the midst of warfare. God’s peace is not [inertia]. The man that has it has still to wage continual conflict, and day by day to brace himself anew for the fight. The highest energy of action is the result of the deepest calm[ness] of heart. That peace of God…is peace militant.”
  A relationship with God isn’t like some magic wand to be waved over all of your problems. True peace doesn’t come that way. As we make the tough choices to trust Him and hold fast to His grace, His peace surges through us. As hard as life is, militant peace arrives at the instant we exercise faith during the battle. It gives us strength to say, “I can do this. I can make this tough choice for the honor of Christ. I can, I will trust Him!”
  Peace is something that we all desperately need and want. It’s one reason why countless millions are spent annually in search of peace. Every year thousands of people seeking personal or family peace flock to professional counselors. Diplomats fly around the globe pursuing peace between nations. Our courts are jammed with cases arising from a breakdown of peace between individuals or corporations. But all this money and time hasn’t worked. Seemingly, there is less peace than ever before.
  Peace, the kind of peace we need and yearn for, is a gift. It’s a gift that God lovingly gave us when He sent His Son, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, into our world. 2,000 thousand years ago angels announced God’s peace in His Son to a group of poor shepherds.
  The peace the Lord Jesus gives isn’t just any kind of peace. The Bible tells us that this peace is a type of peace that enables us to experience an inner calm in spite of circumstances that would normally cause us to unravel. It’s like the calm like the eye of a hurricane…perfect stillness and peace while storms rage all around.
  The best picture of the gift of peace that Jesus brings us is seen in Jesus Himself. The way that the Lord Jesus lived His life showed that when it comes to peace Jesus knew what He was talking about. He fully deserves the title: Prince of Peace. For example, the very storm that caused His disciples to panic, made Him drowsy. Remember? The disciples feared that their boat would be their tomb but to Jesus it was a cradle. Another time, when Jesus was teaching a crowd of 5,000 men (not counting women and children) His disciples panicked because it was supper time, and they were worried about how they’d feed the huge crowd. When they informed Jesus, He faced that situation with unworldly calm.  As He began His earthly ministry and told people in the synagogue that He was the Messiah. They responded by trying to throw Him off a cliff, but He calmly walked through their midst. The professional mourners at the home of Jairus laughed in His face when Jesus told them the little girl was only asleep. Then He calmly entered her room and raised her from the dead. Even the raging demoniac in the graveyard at Gadara didn’t scare Him. On the cross while the other two prisoners cursed their executioners, Jesus prayed for them, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
  Isn’t that the kind of peace that we all long for? Wouldn’t you like to be able to face the trials of life like Jesus did? Doesn’t this particular gift of Christmas seem appealing to you? Jesus came to give us peace, yet there is only one way to have this peace.
  You must surrender your life to King Jesus. The Bible teaches that we’re all sinners and at odds with our Holy God. There’s no such thing as a “good” person. Most of us aren’t even nice. So, to experience this gift of Christmas we must first make our peace with God. We must resolve our part of the conflict between God and man that began when sin entered the world. When Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s laws, really just one command, they broke their relationship with our loving Creator. Every human being since has done the same thing.
  Instead of living our lives according to the will of our Creator, each of us willfully chooses to live according to our own self-will. Isaiah 53:6 describes this selfish rebellion when it says, “We all…like sheep…have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.” When sin entered the world, peace left it. Since then, all of us go our own way instead of God’s. We disobey His laws in thought, word, and deed. Yet Jesus came to make peace between God and man a possibility again. In dying for our sins, Jesus carried the guilt of the entire human race in His own body. Jesus became our peace offering.
  A peace offering is a gift or service for the purpose of securing peace or reconciliation. In the Old Testament there are dozens of references to the Jews recognizing this enmity between themselves and God by bringing peace offerings, sacrifices to God in His temple. But Jesus came to be the peace offering to God for all humanity. His sacrificial death on the cross is the source of this gift of peace.
  It’s what Ephesians 2:14 means when it says, “For He [Jesus] Himself is our peace, Who has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, for through Him we have access to the Father.” To have inner peace then, we must personally accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We must claim Him as our peace offering.
  Jesus is the first Christmas gift. He’s God’s gift to YOU! It’s the message of John 3:16. But a gift is worthless unless you personally accept it. You can believe there’s a gift, know all about it, but it doesn’t become yours until you accept it. Jesus came to give us the gift of peace with God. That’s the beginning of true peace. My friend, have you accepted God’s gift?

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