Searching for Peace – By Matt Miller

Searching for Peace – By Matt Miller

Often times, we find life embroiled with struggle.  A younger person once asked me if it ever gets better and by that, I suppose they are really asking if it gets easier.  We long for better don’t we?  We desire easier.  As young people, we look forward to a time of rest and ease, maybe working diligently to store up for ourselves what we commonly call retirement; a time to retire from labors and cease from working for our livelihood.  Does that bring peace though?  I know a number of retired people.  Sit with them for a bit and they often will describe to you alone-ness and boredom.  God didn’t make us to must sit and just be.  He made us to serve and to labor.  We often become bored with our time and dissatisfied with things in our lives.  So I suppose that in whatever season we find ourselves in life, we need labors – outlets for our energy and efforts, and we likewise long for peace and rest. 

Peace is that quality that is without strife, contending, and fighting. In fact, “peace. noun. : a state of tranquility or quiet: as. a. : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Peace is something then that we also long for to accompany our rest. The Apostle Paul conveyed his wish for the Philippians this way, [Phl 4:6-7 NKJV] 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

As I contemplated a response to the younger man, it occurred to me that no, it doesn’t get easier, better, just different.  You see our lives here are always marked by some problem, some contention, some strife.  That is the way it has been since the expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden.  It is the quality of the curse upon the earth and upon man and woman.  We will strive in this life for something that is beyond our reach and outside of this existence.

Earthly peace is a temporary condition and largely dependent on a number of factors which include our necessities.  People need to know that their meals are provided for.  People need security – safety from harm. People further need physical, mental, and emotional health to be truly at peace.  All of these are factors after which our strivings seek to improve; yet for all of this, we find that all is fleeting. This is the contemplation of Solomon in Ecclesiastes.  Notice, “[Ecc 1:14 NKJV] 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all [is] vanity and grasping for the wind.” Afterward, he concludes, “[Ecc 12:13 NKJV] 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.” Even when you have peace, it seldom has any staying power.  Peace today can be ripped from you by the smallest of changes in circumstance.

While men’s peace on this earth may be fleeting, just as our lives, we are assured of a lasting and sustained peace after this life is over when we re in Jesus Christ. That is the peace that Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:7. Peace that is lasting is a peace with God.  It has a divine origin.  Peace with God has this eternal quality and, in this life, a forward-looking aspect that searches for what is promised in eternity.  It is a peace founded in hope (Hebrews 11:1).

In our Bible’s, we find men who are apparently at peace in the way described above.  Men like Daniel as he spent the night in the lion’s den.  Now I don’t know about Daniel, certainly as they lowered him into the pit, he must have felt some internal struggle and trepidation about what he was about to face, yet recall that King Darius gave Daniel a word of re-assurance for his faith, “[Dan 6:16 NKJV] 16 So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast [him] into the den of lions. [But] the king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.” Certainly Darius had a faith that Daniel would be delivered physically, but I think that Daniel understood it the way that his friends had understood it at another time, when they faced a certain death in a fiery furnace.  Recall they told the king, “[Dan 3:17-18 NKJV] 17 “If that [is the case], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver [us] from your hand, O king. 18 “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Such men are men who’s peace is not here. It is not a quality of this life or this existence, but one of an eternal enduring and lasting nature. 
Where are we at peace? What peace are we seeking? Are we making our peace with God in an eternal way so that even when the devil and life throw all manner of struggles in our way here, we can rest in an assurance of His eternal refuge and rest?  Let us make our peace with our Creator, or Redeemer, and our God and have that which surpasses man’s reasoning and rationalizations.