Perfect Peace

Peace…Really?

Can we really have peace in this life?  Looking around at the world and knowing our own inner turmoil we have our doubts, don’t we?  We have suffering, sickness, poverty, bloodshed, and war.  Where can we find peace in all of this?

In the beginning, it wasn’t this way.  In the beginning there was no hardship, no sickness, no suffering…because there was no sin.  “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” – Gen 1:31  In short, everything was in a state of perfect peace.

Sad to say, that condition did not last.  Our ancestors, Adam and Eve, heeded not God’s warning that death and destruction would come upon them and the world if chose evil deliberately.  Since that time, as the offspring of our first parents, we have been born sinners and are incapable of restoring peace with God.  “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” – Gen 6:5

You see, sin is not just outward acts such as murder, adultery, theft, etc… Sin is fundamentally a condition of the heart!  “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” – Matt 15:19

“So what?” you may say!  “What of this sin?”  Well it is the sin you feel in yourself that causes this fear and longing for peace.  Even when we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we still know and feel that justice demands a punishment for sin.  “The soul who sins will die.” – Ezek 18:4

Where is there a hope for peace then?  Through self-help and self-esteem programs?  Through penance or sacrifices of some sort?  The more people struggle to find peace in themselves, the more uneasy they feel.  “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” – Isa 64:6  A heart harboring sin is a heart unable to find peace.

Our only hope is to despair of our own efforts and look to the one source of all that is good and true.  “’As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” – Ezek 33:11  The Good News is that God himself has taken matters into his own hands.  He has himself restored the peace through the suffering and death of Jesus to pay for your sins and mine.

Why continue to live in doubt, uncertainty, and the fear of death?  Why not confess your sins and believe in the forgiveness which Christ has won for you?  Perfect Peace is yours full and free!  Then learn more of your Savior and what He has done for you.  Live a life of thankfulness and love, knowing you’re at peace with God; looking forward to judgement day rather than fearing it!