Looking for peace lately...looking for it in the Holidays...friends...routines...not finding it anywhere...I know peace comes from the Lord Jesus but it is too easy to get distracted and look elsewhere. This past week I have made it my focus to get that peace from Christ. Today our message at church was about just that...Christ is our Prince of Peace.
All the people, place, things we look to for peace is all momentary...temporary... not gonna last... but the peace He gives is eternal...not based on what is happening in our life. It is a solid standing, unshakeable. It is an ongoing battle for many of us to find that peace and keep it. Worry wars are all too common.
Luke 2 is the Christmas story...and for Mary and Joseph it was far from a peaceful time. I am sure they were very scared as they made their steps back to Joseph's hometown for the census. They had a Word from God...but it was not a familiar word...it was new...and the path had not been traveled before. Yet she was giving birth to the ONE who is called the Prince of Peace. I can not imagine the path Mary and Joseph traveled.
The meaning of the word peace is contentedness, lack of discord. God says peace will come as we fix our hearts and minds on truth. (Phil.4:8) Christ says He is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. He is truth. Isaiah 26 tells us as we trust in Him we will walk in peace. To me this says I do not have to figure out the details. My task at hand is enough...fixing my mind on Christ...telling myself to lay aside the things that drag me down and focus myself on HIM. Psalm 62 (my verse for this season) ..Let all that I am wait quietly before God...wait in hope. Another verse in Psalm says surely I have weaned and quieted my soul before God...that is peace...that is trusting that God will work out the details. It is a temptation for me to run things through my mind over and over thinking it out... yeilding to God in this says, "I have not time to figure out all the details. I have only time to focus myself on Him who began this good work in me. He will bring it all to completion."