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Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. Luke 2:14
The peace-robber of fear has a cousin named doubt. Doubt has been used by the enemy of our souls from the very beginning.
The seed of doubt was planted in the mind of Adam and Eve in the garden. It was doubt that fueled and extra 20 years of wandering in the wilderness.
It’s doubt that keeps us from seeing the peace that the angels promised the shepherds that night on a lonely hillside outside of Bethlehem.
On Christmas’s day, 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a 57 year old widowed father of six sat in his office. His mind was cluttered with doubt. His wife had died. His oldest had been severely wounded in the Civil war. His country was being torn apart.
As the sound of Christmas bells wrestled with the doubts in his mind he penned this poem which has become a popular Christmas Carol:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men
And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
It’s no secret we live in troubled times. Hate is strong. The darkness of conflict is evident in our homes and globally.
But our peace as Christ-followers transcends the evil of this world and reminds us “God is NOT dead.”
Global peace on earth will not happen until the return of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Until then, those of us who trust in him as our Savior can experience peace and share that peace with others.
Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. Isaiah 26:12
Of all the ‘peace-robbers’ we face, fear is perhaps the strongest and most crippling. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of abandonment. Fear of dying. Fear is a driving force that has kept great books from being written, relationships that never happened, songs that have never been sung, careers that were never pursued.
Pastor Rick Warren writes, “Fear is a self imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love.”
When the prophet Isaiah wrote concerning the coming Messiah he writes, “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.” (Isaiah 26:12) The crippling effects of fear can be lessened (at the least) or even destroyed when we focus on the Prince of Peace, the one empowered by God himself to keep fear in check so that we can move forward to be all He wants us to be.
The absence of fear is peace and living in peace allows us to see the situation more clearly. Fear blinds us to opportunities, peace allows us to see opportunities. Fear imprisons, peace frees. Fear deceives, peace tells us the truth. Fear is debilitating, peace is energizing.
So, how do we get this peace when fear seems to have a stranglehold on our mind? We rely on the source of peace. The source of our peace isn’t trusting your heart. The source of peace isn’t education or money. The source of peace isn’t trying harder or making lifestyle changes. The source of our peace comes directly from the Prince of Peace.
He creates in us peace of mind and peace of mind builds confidence, helps us to think through a problem, keeps us stable on unstable ground and brings a healing oil to a troubled soul.
Billy Graham states that ‘fear flees in the light of God’s love’ through our Prince of Peace. God doesn’t want us to be prisoners of our fears. He wants us to thrive. He wants us to use the gifts and resources He’s given us. He wants us to feel the peace that passes all understanding.
This Christmas season focus on the Prince of your Peace instead of your fear. The shepherds heard this message loud and clear, ‘Fear not! For today, in the city of Bethlehem is born the Prince of Peace!”
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3
We make thousands of decisions every day based on trust. So much so that we don’t even give them much thought. Have you ever lay in bed thinking, “I wonder if gravity will work today?” When you get to the office do you ‘check’ your chair to make sure it’s not broken? Do you spend your day focusing on making sure you are breathing? Do you carry a stethoscope with you to regularly check to be sure your heart was still beating?
Hopefully, your response is no. In fact, you may have read those examples and wondered what I’m thinking! We live our lives in peace in these areas because our past has taught us that we can trust certain things like gravity and bodily systems to work in certain ways.
Peace is a choice. We can live in peace in the midst of struggle or we can can respond with fear, worry, anger or a host of other emotions. When we view our struggle as something in our control, and we don’t feel we have the ability to overcome, all sorts of peace-robbing thoughts and fears enter our minds.
These thoughts destroy peace in our relationships, our sleep or our daily lives. We can choose peace in a situation when we know in our hearts that we can trust the outcome, not because we have a solution, but because we know who can and will handle the struggle on our behalf.
That ‘handling of the struggle’ may not mean it’s removal but it assures us that in the midst of the battle we will have an inner strength because we trust the one who loves us beyond measure and promises to always be there for us.
Live in peace based on the almighty power of Jesus, our peace giver, our Prince of Peace.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
When you think of peace, what picture comes to mind? A quiet lake with trees reflecting like glass? A sunrise or sunset? The gentle sound of water lapping against the shore?
One of my favorite paintings symbolizing peace is the picture of a huge waterfall. The water was plunging over a cliff and in the background bolts of lightning lit up the sky. Yet, tucked into the cliff in a quiet safe place, was a bird securely snuggled into it’s nest. Peace in the midst of the storm.
Thomas Watson once wrote, “If God be our God, He will give us peace in trouble. When there is a storm without, He will make peace within. The world can create trouble in peace, but God can create peace in trouble.”
I love the last part of that statement. The world creates trouble in the time of peace, but God, and only God, can create peace in the midst of trouble.
Jesus warns us that trouble would be a natural part of our world, yet he promised that he had already overcome the world. Those problems facing you tomorrow? Already handled. The answer is on the way!
Isaiah describes Messiah as our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and our Prince of Peace. Prince of Peace is an interesting term. The name “Prince of Peace” in Hebrew is ‘Shar Shalom’, which means “the one who removes all peace-disturbing factors and secures the peace.” The prince would often lead the charge in battle. He had all the tools and resources he’d need to defeat the enemy. He had the blessing of the King.
Jesus not only protects the peace, as a mighty warrior he defeats everything that would take away our peace. He destroys the peace destroyers that threaten our lives. He can heal the broken relationship. He comforts us when we need comforting. He allows strength when we are weak, courage when we are afraid, love when we feel abandoned, valued when we are rejected.
This week as we focus on peace, let us remember that anything that would rob us of peace has been defeated on the cross!
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. Ephesians 1:18
When we enter mindset of hopelessness, it’s hard to see things clearly. It can be like a dark cloud surrounds us. We tend to see the problems, not possibilities. We see obstacles, not opportunities.
Hopelessness can be physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausting. When we get tired it’s easy t to forget who we are or more importantly, whose we are. Feelings of hopelessness are not only be exhausting, they can be debilitating. We not only forget whose we are, we forget the resources available to us.
In one of Paul’s prayers for the Ephesians (and us) he prays that we, in the midst of our darkness, will see the light of hope we have through Jesus. Hope is future looking, not tied to the past. Hope is revealing. It shows that as bad as things may be now, we have a bright future.
Hope is vertical looking, not horizontal. It looks above your situation. Hope is eternal and thus, not affected by current circumstances. The God of hope has called you to a life of hope based on His riches in glory.
Don’t allow the darkness of hopelessness keep you from seeing the light of Jesus this Christmas.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 