Let's Talk About Peace

[HKHaugan]

Let’s Talk About Peace

How do you make peace?  In secular thinking it just takes agreeing that we should believe in curbing our hostility and choosing not to be in conflict.  That’s the solution.  But is that real peace?  Can we personally make peace?  Is the absence of conflict really peace?  How does an individual resolve what causes conflict?  You’ve heard the question, “Why can’t we just get along?”  ‘Getting along’ is just a surface compromise, a dishonest avoidance of something much deeper.

No matter how individuals may argue that they are settled within, have real satisfaction in their job and family and feel good inside, take those away or bring a threat of economic, social, health and physical attack, what then?  How do you deal within when the world around you seems to turn against you?  Also, there is always a guilt of some kind, an insecurity when you make mistakes, unsure of how to handle difficult relationships.  No one is really free until the spiritual vacuum within is filled.  Where is that consistent peace?   

Maybe there is another kind of peace.  A peace we can’t ‘make’ but is made in another way.  When Jesus calls us in the Sermon of the Mount to see ourselves blessed when we make peace He is pointing to another kind of peace.  It’s not outer peace but inner peace, “not as the world gives but as I give” says Jesus.  It’s not something we make through agreements to cease hostility but a spiritual gift from outside us that existed before Creation.   It is a spiritual peace, the peace of God seen in the Prince of Peace, Jesus.  He defined peace not by making peace but by being the picture of peace.  If He is our peace, then our relationship with Him will show His peace through us.  It will be seen in the calmness, the stability, the way we handle the ups and downs of everyday life. 

People may ask how come you don’t get upset at everything that is happening around us, the virus, the political upsets, the financial crises and all that stuff on the TV meant to keep you upset.  You can’t ‘make’ the kind of peace it takes to handle it all.  Peace is a spiritual gift from God that you accept or reject.  All that stands in the way of that acceptance is fear and pride and they were spiritually dealt with on the Cross. 

So, it’s spiritual peace with God first, which covers our heart, and then His peace lives in us.  Then, wherever we are that peace is seen.  It’s like the spiritual confidence God gives that enables you to ‘feel comfortable in your own skin’ wherever you are.  Just as citizens have a social security number, believers have a spiritual security number---7, from a spiritually secure person, Jesus, with a spiritually secure destiny, Heaven.

[HKHaugan]

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