Peace In Our Time

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ike most kids in most neighborhoods we had our little disagreements, our arguments, and our skirmishes.  Usually these lasted no more than a few hours unless a siege was declared in which case we could make it perhaps two days before a truce was called.  War in a neighborhood is rough, especially when you want to play outside and no one will join you because you’ve drawn battle lines over who has the best tennis shoes.

Honestly, I can’t believe the things we used to argue over.  But it wasn’t long until we found some way to bury the hatchet and get our friendships and our relationships back on track.  Usually, the peace treaty took the form of a simple I’m sorry.  But if the stakes were really high, candy, potato chips, a ride on someone’s bike, or some type of trade was involved.  The result was peace in the neighborhood until the next squabble came along.

Isn’t it odd how behavior among neighborhood kids reflects the greater neighborhood of the real world?  Unfortunately, though, neither a bike ride nor a candy bar can resolve these problems.  Even a formal declaration of peace between countries is no guarantee that the peace can be maintained.  The world learned that lesson during the Second World War.  Neville Chamberlain, England’s Prime Minister, returned from the 1938 Munich Conference with a declaration of peace with Nazi Germany, confidently stating that he had obtained “Peace in our time.”  Sadly, there was no peace and the treaty signed between these two powers was worthless. The scuffles in Europe’s neighborhood continued until the entire world was at war.

Peace is a very popular word in vogue today.  With all the conflicts around the world, it seems that every diplomat, every government leader, every political party, and every social movement has a solution for the world’s problems.  The cries for peace around the world sound like a verse from the children’s song, Old MacDonald had a farm.  It would sound something like this, “Here a peace, there a peace, everywhere a peace, peace!”  History teaches us, however, that permanent peace is seemingly beyond mankind’s reach as a whole.

Would it surprise you to learn that the word peace appears 292 times in the Scriptures?  From Genesis to Revelation, from the beginning to the end, we find mankind looking for peace with his enemies but also peace for his soul.  Fortunately, God’s word makes it crystal clear that mankind can achieve peace.  This peace is not between countries or individuals.  It is not based on a document or on a trade of goods.  It is based solely on God’s grace and His gift of salvation for a lost and dying world.

Micah 5:5a gives us this following statement on peace: “And he will be their peace.”  In this portion of scripture, Micah looks forward to the day when Messiah will come.  Notice that Micah does not say that Messiah will bring peace; he says that Messiah is peace. What a wonderful truth this!  The words of Jesus, spoken hundreds of years later, guarantee this peace for the human soul.  Jesus says in John’s gospel that he gives us his peace.  This is not the peace offered by the world but the very peace of God.  Paul also writes in his letter to the Romans that believers in Christ have received peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Do you have this peace today?  In a world that is rocked and torn by turmoil, hatred, war, and fighting do you have the assurance of God’s peace?  When your personal situation becomes difficult, when your family life is tense, when your future is uncertain, when it seems the burdens of life are more than you can bear, and when it feels as if you are being attacked from every side, cut off from all help, do you have God’s peace and assurance that passes all understanding?  If so, I pray that you will continue to walk in this peace today. He truly offers us “Peace in our time.”  Have a great day!