“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.”
2 Thessalonians 3:16
Aren’t we all craving peace these days?
We’re desperate - we know we are hurry-sick and worried sick, and we are all trying to curate a cure with our own hands. We’re tired of barreling through life, battling anxiety and crippling fear, and barely breathing through it all.
It’s almost too much to bear.
We know two things: something needs to change. And, peace is priceless.
But we’re fooled, thinking peace can be cultivated through pointed practices and preaching to ourselves. Believing mindfulness is the answer or that we can buy our way to perfect peace. We’re feigning peace and finding temporary solutions when we’re really in pieces: fretful and fragmented.
I’ve been there too - looking for peace in many places.
I’ve looked along the path of least resistance, duped into believing that ease is synonymous with peace. I dropped a class in the beginning of almost every semester of college, thinking my light load would carry me to a peace-filled existence. As it turns out, I was left feeling bored for much of those years of my life.
I’ve looked for peace in prosperity, in pleasure, in productivity, and applause. I’ve run to places and things and people, but as it turns out, Peace is a proper noun, a Person, and His name is Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace - He’s the only One who holds the keys to peace, and there’s no point in looking elsewhere.
We’re missing it, missing the piece of the puzzle who is Peace Himself. We’re homesick for Jesus and it shows in our shaky and unsettled souls.
Our aching hearts are laid bare before Him, this Prince of Peace, and He aches for us to experience the goodness of His peace. He offers us the only cure to our crisis: Himself.
His hands open wide on the cross, His body broken for you and blood spilled - He was pierced to bring us peace and to bind up all of our broken places. He pieces us back together - providing the peace we longed for all along.
And this peace is all-encompassing. It’s not partial peace or situational peace. It’s shalom (the Hebrew word for peace) - wholeness in every way: body, mind and spirit. Relational peace, with God and people. Flourishing and fullness of life, the way things God intended them to be. THIS is the peace God has in store for us if we would stop our striving and come to Him instead.
We are meant to find our home in Jehovah Shalom - the God of Peace Himself.
Peace is our privilege as children of God, our portion as those who call on the Prince of Peace. We cannot purchase it or earn it - He grants it to those who follow Him: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27). His peace “transcends all understanding,” protecting our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7). His peace is perfect, sustaining those who humbly trust in God (Isaiah 26:3). His peace can even circumvent our circumstances - we can experience peace in discomfort and poverty and pain and suffering and less than ideal situations because “the Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). This is not a worldly peace but an altogether otherworldly gift of peace straight from the hands of God.
It’s the New Year, and we’re all full of hopes and dreams. Maybe this will be the year…
And we’re plotting out the year ahead and placing our hope into our own hands, thinking that we’ll find true peace in our plans. If only ________, then I’ll be happy and peace will be my prize. I’ll finally be fulfilled. I’ll never need anything again.
And isn’t that just the way of humans - putting too much pressure on this world to satisfy? Searching for shalom in temporal places.
How do we claim this peace that Jesus offers to us in 2025? How do we finally experience this peace that all of us so desperately long for?
We stop our searching and start surrendering. We stop planning and plotting and start praying, inviting His presence into all that we do. We stop putting hope in our own hands and start opening our palms to receive peace from the only true Source of it.
May this be the year we find shalom instead of success. May shalom settle on our homes this year, and in our hearts.
Comments