PERFECT PEACE
A person whose desire rests on You, You preserve in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. (Isaiah 26:3)
Are we currently living in perfect peace? As I write this short message, our country and our world are struggling through the onslaught of the Corona Virus, a new set of 29 proteins[1] which have spawned Covid 19. If we were at peace before this pandemic struck, we certainly are not at peace now. Why would I say that?
Twenty-four hours per day, television is filled with news of hundreds of thousands of those around the world, who have been laid low and the thousands who have died each day. Facebook and Twitter have only added to this cacophony. With so much news, most of it unfiltered, coming to us in a steady stream, how is it possible for us to be at peace?
There is an answer to this question – GOD! Throughout the Scriptures, there are over one hundred verses which reassure us of the peace that the Ruler of the universe and the Lover of our souls offers us. For example, in Isaiah 26:3, posted above, we read of Yahveh’s perfect peace for us, if we but trust in Him. What does it mean to trust in God?
First, we must believe that He exists. Looking around, we see an incredible amount of evidence pointing to His existence. Who else but God could have created the incredible variety of vegetation that grows around the world? If you believe random sets of single celled organisms arrived on earth via alien rocks, comets and asteroids which bombarded many millions of years ago, then you have a gargantuan amount of trust, more than it takes to believe in God. If you believe that, in addition to plants, these same alien rocks brought the building blocks of animal life, then I’m afraid you are living in a fantasy world. The only plausible explanation for all of our plant and animal life, from the time of the earth’s creation, is God.
What evidence do we have of God’s existence? Our own universe, with all the galaxies and their suns and their planets, are here because, as Eugene Wigner wrote, “the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and there is no rational explanation for it.”[2] This led Dr. Robert Nelson to conclude, “I would argue that the supernatural character of the workings of human consciousness adds grounds for raising the probability of the existence of a supernatural god ”[3]. With a growing chorus of researchers joining into the understanding of God’s existence, it is hard not to accept that God exists. I could go on, but this is not a thesis. So, what does all this have to do with peace?
As I wrote earlier, God loves order, not chaos, and harmony, not disharmony. In order for there to be peace, there must be order and harmony. What is required, then, for us to achieve both order and harmony in our lives, our communities, our nation and the world? Below are just a few necessary components[4] of peace:
Non-violence: Impatience, unrealistic expectations, pride, all create levels of frustration that easily lead to violence. These and more elements of negativity will draw us into the direction of confrontation and, ultimately, violence. Many years ago, Adonai Yeshua, the Lord Jesus, declared: everyone who uses the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)
Love of Truth: As sad as it may seem, most of us alive today, will hide from the Truth, rather than allow it to upset our comfort or stability. However, for peace to be our hallmark, there must be a love of truth throughout our community. Many of us, who post on Twitter and Face Book, do so, not to share the Truth but to receive affirmation from our peers. This desire to be applauded brings greater satisfaction, than the criticism received from the Truth. King David wrote about Yahveh, God: The main thing about Your word is that it’s true; and all Your just rulings last forever. (Psalm 119:160) We add to this, then, Proverbs 12:22 – Lying lips are an abomination to Adonai, but those who deal faithfully are his delight.
Goodness: As simple as this may sound, goodness is one of the prime requirements for peace in our community; with goodness, we have homelessness, abandonment, spousal and child abuse and many more societal afflictions. Goodness equates with kindness and gentleness. So important is goodness for and to us, the Apostle Paul included it in his list of the nine elements of the Fruit of the Spirit. How much would it take us to bring in goodness as a symbol of our society. From the looks of things, quite a bit.
Justice: Do you remember when Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, was prepared to allow a starving farmer to die, simply because he did not want to listen to his grievances? There is no greater lack of justice, than not hearing another’s concerns. Isaiah, living in the midst of one of the greatest calamities faced by Israel, stated: learn to do good! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, defend orphans, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:17) How much more direction do we need?
Listening to our Teachers: All of us have had or currently do have teachers we admired and respected. Some of us even listened to them, when they taught. These were and are men and women with vast life experience and degrees of wisdom many of us aspire to but may never achieve. Proverbs 1:7 tells us: The fear of Adonai is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. But, then, adds to it with: Happy the person who finds wisdom, the person who acquires understanding; for her profit exceeds that of silver, gaining her is better than gold, she is more precious than pearls. . . (Proverbs 3:13-15)
These five attributes may be what is required of all human beings, in order for there to be peace in our lives. I would love to say that I feel optimistic they are achievable, but I am not; at least not by our efforts alone. Here is where we need to seek Yahveh’s help in achieving what man is incapable of doing on our own.
CONSIDER: Have you contemplated what is needed in your home to achieve peace? Have you been faced with obstacles that have threatened to destroy whatever peace you had? What have you done about these?
ACT: Understand that we human beings are unable to bring about peace alone, even in our own minds and homes. But this is where it must start. How can we expect to reach a peaceful state in our communities, if we have not seen peace in our homes? Here is where we must ask for God’s help!
PRAY: Abba B’Shamayim, our Heavenly Father, hear our prayers, as we lift our voices up to You. Be with us in our time of need. We need You to bring peace into our lives. We need you to help us deal with the conflicts within ourselves, within our family. We need you to bring harmony into our lives. B’Shem Adonai Yeshua, Mashichainu, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, our Messiah, Amen.
[1] Katsnelson, A. What do we know about the novel coronavirus’ 29 proteins?, Chemical and Engineering News, April 1, 2020.
[2] Wigner, Eugene. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13:1. (1960)
[3] Nelson, R. God? Very Probably: Five Rational Ways to Think about the Question of God, Cascade Books, Eugene, OR. 2015,
[4] Adapted from Ron House, Peace Legacy, June 2009.