The peace we seek is found in the Prince of Peace
We may grasp for peace and not find it because we’ve failed to identify the source of our most significant strife.
Our world is filled with turmoil. Even when we manage to escape the strife for a while personally, it still touches us through the troubles of family, friends, and colleagues. If nothing else, we glance at the news and see how deeply it permeates humanity. Conflicts between nations, conflicts within our country, conflicts among those we know, and conflicts within our souls— We are desperate for peace while many of us look for it in all the wrong places.
We may grasp for peace and not find it because we’ve failed to identify the source of our most significant strife. The nations rage, families are divided, and people are miserably discontent because they remain unreconciled to God, our Creator and Sustainer (Ps 2:1). To be at odds with God is a far worse struggle than if we were to fight the laws of gravity. In him, we live and move and have our being (Ac 17:28). If we can’t overcome the laws of nature, what makes us think we can live contrary to the Creator of nature and be satisfied?
If we want meaningful, lasting peace, we must first seek peace with God. As the apostle Paul writes, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2C 5:20, 21). We can have peace with God only through our Lord Jesus Christ (Ro 5:1).
Turn away from your sins. Trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Surrender yourself to his will. The man Christ Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and men (1Ti 2:5). There is salvation in no one else (Ac 4:12). If you long for peace, look no further than the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). Stop fighting against God and his perfect design and be reconciled (2Co 5:20). Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2Co 6:2).
The rest—that is, your rest—will fall into place. As Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus:
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility … so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. (Ephesians 2:13-17)