How Can I Find the Peace of God?

     In the world that we live in, you can buy almost anything, anytime, and have it shipped right to your front door.  If your local grocery store doesn’t have it, then you can almost certainly find it in an online store.  But you know, there are still a few things that can’t be sold or bought, and these are actually the most important things in life: the things that we all most crave.  If I am miserable and scared, looking at my stuff really doesn’t take care of it.  In a crisis, the things that we value so much suddenly seem unimportant.  We start looking for something more.  Suddenly this is the thing that we know we have always wanted.  This highly sought after and desperately desired item is peace, the peace of God.

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. 

John 14:27

What is the Peace of God?

     The peace of God is something that all of us want and are looking for, whether we know it or not.  This verse in John is the words of Jesus that He spoke when He was here on earth.  As I was thinking about this verse recently, I was struck by a little word in it.  Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you.”  Without that little word “my,” this verse could have a completely different meaning.

     Think about it.  Where do we tend to look for peace?  If you are like me, you probably find yourself looking to your circumstances for peace.  We can be very content and think that we are peaceful as long as everything is going well.  When the sun is shining, you are enjoying life, and feel like everything is just the way you want it, it is quite easy to feel happy and think that you have everything you could possibly want.

     But, what happens when the sun goes behind a cloud and thunder rumbles in the distance?  There are many ways that this can happen in our lives.  Maybe we are afraid something is going to happen.  Or it could be that we get sick, lose something we like, or just plain have a bad day.  How is it that our happiness can fade away as quickly as the sun slips behind a cloud?

     The only way that we can have true peace and have it consistently is to look to Jesus and receive the peace of God.  This is a peace that never changes, a peace we cannot make ourselves have, a peace that only God can give.  Philippians calls it a  peace “which passeth all understanding.” This is because it is a peace not found in our circumstances but found in trusting Jesus.  While our circumstances come and go, as they always will (it’s called life), Jesus never changes.  He will always be good and faithful, full of love for us, and there for us to look to and rest in. 

What is the Peace Jesus Gives?

     Jesus gives us His peace, which is the peace that He carried with Him all through His time here on earth and even after.  Let’s think about that for a minute.  In what ways do we seeing Jesus displaying peace in His life while He was here on earth?  For one thing, Jesus was pure and sinless.  He had peace in His heart from knowing that He had lived a perfect life and always done what was right.  Now, each one of us has sinned and broken God’s holy standard, but through Jesus’ death on the cross, we can be forgiven and receive Jesus’ perfect record as our own!

And, having made peace through the blood of his (Jesus’) cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Colossians 1:20

     Jesus offers to each of us the peace of being right with God and having clean and pure hearts before Him.  If we confess our sins to Him, He is waiting to give us the peace of God that can only come when we are forgiven and have Him in our hearts and lives.

What is the Difference Between God’s Peace and The World’s Peace?

     Another way that Jesus was peaceful was because He was fully God and full of power.  When difficult circumstances arose, He did not need to worry or stress.  He had the power to resolve the situation. 

     If it was a raging storm, He could calm it by three simple words, ‘Peace be still.’  When there was not enough food to grow around, he multiplied what there was so that there was extra leftover.  If people were sick, he healed them.  Even when all hope appeared to be gone and people died, he brought them back to life!

     Now, we are human and we do not have that kind of power.  But the good news is that Jesus never changes, He is still as powerful as ever, and He offers to be in control of our lives.  We can surrender everything to Him and rest in His control, knowing that He loves us and does all things well.

     This is quite different from the world’s peace.  The “peace” that the world offers is in doing whatever we want and being in control of our own lives.  However, while the world offers us peace in this way, it never truly satisfies, and it does not last.  When trials come, we often aren’t able to handle them on our own or get ourselves out of the situation. 

     If we are willing to humble ourselves and surrender to Jesus, He will give us true and lasting peace.  You don’t have to fear giving over control to the One Who loved you so much that He died for you!

How Do You Find Peace in Difficult Times?

     Jesus went through more trials and difficulties while here on this earth than anyone else has faced.  However, He faced these trials with peace and trust in the will of His Heavenly Father.  We can do this too, through the power of Jesus.  He wants us to trust in Him and in His perfect will.

     Trust is not something that we can do on our own.  It’s easy to trust when things are going well, but trials show how much faith we really have.  When we begin to stress and worry, that should be a vivid reminder for us to talk to Jesus.  He wants us to tell Him our struggles and seek His strength.  Then He can give us the peace of God in the midst of our trials. 

     We don’t have to wait for our trials to be over to be peaceful.  True faith comes from trusting God in the middle of the trial.  This is the kind of faith Jesus is ready to give us when we come to Him and ask.

How Do You Get Inner Peace With God?

     Peace is hard to find in this world.  It is a lot easier to look around and see turmoil, conflict, and fear than it is to see peace.  How can we live with peace in our hearts every day?  The answer is to stop looking around at the changing, troubled world and look instead at our unchanging, Prince of peace.  Jesus never changes, so when we are looking to Him to meet our needs, we will not have to live on a roller coaster of doubt and fear.

     Jesus wants us to have the peace of God in our hearts every day.  You and I know that this does not mean that we will never feel fear again.  Instead, what it means is that we know what to do and where to go when we are stressed.  We can run to Jesus, and He will always be there for us as often as we want to come. 

     Let’s learn to run to Jesus every day and let His peace flood our hearts!

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.  

Colossians 3:15

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     If you would like to read more posts about learning to trust God and live a simple, peaceful life, I would love to have you subscribe to the blog!  You will gain access to the free resource library and get notified when new peaceful posts come out.  In a world where so much of the focus is on finding happiness in ourselves, we need to be reminded often to look to Jesus and His Word as our source of peace.  

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What Bible verse brings you comfort and peace during hard times?