They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah 6:14   

The end of the Bible, or better put, the culmination of time ends with the wedding of the lamb. God’s people become interconnected as one with Jesus for eternity to glorify him and enjoy his presence. That is real peace. This is the peace of God. This unbreakable connection with God. That is coming but not here yet. 

For now, God’s peace can seem far off at moments. It often seems far away for me as I face failed expectations and circumstances. Situations I never expected wondering how did I get here? But trials should not be surprising. The Bible states that for a brief period our world will be controlled by the “prince of this world,” who is the enemy of God and our eternal souls.  Our enemy’s desire is to blind us to the peace of God, our future with God, and get our focus on the momentary circumstances, disappointments, and unfairness of life “under the sun.” 

Was Jesus just lying when he says follow me and your burden will be light?  Was Paul crazy to tell us to be looking for and expecting peace beyond understanding?  Peace beyond surface circumstances or daily emotions. Peace that doesn’t depend on others actions toward us, power, money, or mental discipline and toughness.  

Paul knew what it was to have bad circumstances.    

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;  on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (ESV) 

And he encouraged us to follow his example.  

 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9 (ESV) 

Where did Paul find God’s peace? It is the same place we can get it because Paul was just like us…only he was the “worst” of all sinners.  Paul found peace in focus on Jesus. Not the Jesus of Sunday school drawings,  long flowing hair, and a sweet smile. But the Jesus who created the world we live in and cared enough about us, despite our own behavior and actions, to leave heaven and live with us in the flesh.  This Jesus, this God, the one whom Paul gave all for says,  

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27 (ESV) 

This peace starts with our proclamation of faith in this Jesus. In Romans Paul says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 

For followers of Jesus, our future is secured by the creator, this creator of a vast and unmeasurable universe, who also knows each tiny detail of our lives. He is working in the world for things greater than we see on the surface. Sometimes because of the turmoil of the world we live in, which is tumultuous exactly like what God said it would be, we can be deceived by our anxiety that there is a power greater than Jesus who we secretly should be cutting a deal with if we need peace. I am always ready to cut that deal, looking for that secret formula, to find a peace that I can control and is not dependent on God for it. 

But that is exactly where we should not go in search of. Our peace beyond understanding is going to be found in the opposite direction. Look what is says in Psalms 34, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  

Psalms 119:1:2  says, Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart! God doesn’t say give half our heart to the world’s system by creating carefully executed circumstances and half to God to gain peace. When we search the Word of God for how we should act and view life in this world, and as we fill ourselves with the Word of God and respond with acts of service becoming peculiar people, we can know that we are on the right direction despite the circumstances and can place our worries and anxieties on Jesus.  

This is Paul’s testimony in short. In seeking God with a whole heart, he was able to find this peace beyond understanding. Shouldn’t we all want to make this peace a goal. Peace isn’t really a question of mental strength, complex life change, but of desire and interest. When in serving God, we fill our minds with God’s word by reading the Bible each day before looking at the news, praying for the things that bother us and worry us, and remembering our blessings (a great way to do this is journaling), we may surprise ourselves in the peace this brings even in the deep trials of life that all of us face.  

Next post we look in on what Paul has to say on what he did to keep his focus on Jesus.

Doug

The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.”  Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.