February 26, 2022
Being Peaceful, in the Midst of Unpeacefulness
With the chaotic nature of our world in this day and time, a wonderful skill to have in your personal inventory is the ability to be peaceful and remain peaceful.
Jesus said in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
A definition of “peace” is “absence of disturbance” – “tranquility”
Peace is not an automatic thing because the world around us has been at war since the days of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, that was the beginning of disturbance for mankind, indicated by thorns and thistles in Genesis 3:18. Thorns and thistles hurt when you get stuck by them just as wars hurt because they disturb and destroy.
However, Jesus Christ would not have made that statement had it not been true. Peace is a state of inner calm that has to be worked on because it will not be supported from worldly sources. Noah practiced peace in his life for it took him many years to build the Ark under God’s direction and he had to stay focused all that time in the midst of the chaos of his times.
Fear will steal our peace. Psalms 34:4 tells us, “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” It’s absolutely got to be God that does this, because we are not capable of ourselves to manage the onslaught of negatives that comes our way at times.
Elijah the prophet was on the run for a bit of his life because a woman named Jezebel, who was a Queen, wanted to kill him. She had the resources to do it. That would be a reason to be unpeaceful: having someone who was worldly powerful wanting to do away with you.
However, Elijah was faithful to God, he loved God and God took care of him.
In 1 Kings 19, God gave him directions to take care of himself and he obeyed. In Verse 12, it tells us, “And after the earthquake a fire: but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” That voice was God giving Elijah the comfort and directive he needed to move on.
Peace is something that we have to work on.
Colossians 3:15: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
There are many artificial sources of peace: drugs and alcohol being two popular ones along with types of meditation. However, God is the giver of true peace and the giver of every positive thing we can imagine. God has done the giving, it’s available to us. We now have to do the receiving, which means we have to act on it. It’s not automatic! It’s not always an easy thing to do. Quite often things that are important to us require effort to receive.
One trick of the Adversary is to put the fear of lack before us. So often people fear certain situations because they are concerned that those situations will interfere with their life style. So often we have routines and perhaps if those routines are threatened we become unpeaceful. This is a trick of the Adversary to get us distracted from God’s Word.
It takes work and discipline to stand up to this because it’s always going to be there until Christ returns. For the most part you’re going to have to hold your own hand when you deal with this. Believers can comfort you and speak the Word to you, but you have to control your mind.
Ephesians 1:3 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
We are blessed with all spiritual blessings whatever that might be. I have no idea what “all” is but I know it’s big and I’m sure at the return I’ll see. In the meantime, let’s work on being peaceful!
Funglimpses to all! Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted. Will Grove