The Quiet Power of Peace

Aug 16, 2010

“Six Benefits of Peace”

A few days before my 29^th birthday my sister-in-law Vivian asked me a seemingly simple question, but at the time, it was perhaps the most powerful question anybody had ever asked me, what do you want for your birthday? My answer was, “I want people to leave me alone… I want peace.” Little did I know that God was listening and I was only days away from being a part of God’s family. On April 26, 1997 at around 6:00 PM, in the living room of my home, as I was reading the Four Spiritual Laws track, I gave my life to Jesus Christ as I repented of my sins, acknowledged that He died and roused again on the third day by the Father and called Him into my heart.

The emphasis of my article today is not my testimony, but my inner cry for peace. Peace is commonly defined as, “A state of mental calm and serenity, with no anxiety.” The Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines peace as: “Inner tranquility and poise of the Christian whose trust is in God through Christ.”

I am convinced that many people desire that peace; however, many of us look in the wrong places for it. Many imagine themselves in a beautiful island facing the blue sea in a comfortable chair just raising their hands as they have a servant that brings them what they want at any time. Many dream for that perfect vacation only to quickly discover that they need a vacation to recover from the one they just “enjoyed”.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:7 “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” In this article I would like for you to meditate on six powerful benefits of God’s peace:

The peace of God is more powerful than any circumstance you may be facing. (Phil. 4:7) “The peace of God surpasses all understanding.” When all hell is breaking loose around you and when it makes no sense for you to be smiling, the peace of God stands firm in the mountains of our tribulations.
The peace of God will guard your heart and mind through Jesus. (Phil. 4:7) This is very significant because your heart is connected with your emotions (How you feel!) as your mind is connected with your thought process. The peace of God will guard your emotions and your thoughts in the mix of all the tribulations of life.
Peace is a blessing from God. (Ps. 29:11) If you are at peace, know that you are being blessed by God.
We must search and pursue for peace as peace will always face opposition. (Ps. 34:14) The devil will always come after your peace in the form of circumstances and people; that is why we must search and pursuit it daily.
Peace is the setting for the realization of your future; without peace your destiny in God will never become a reality. (Ps. 37:37) This is one of the reasons why Satan attacks us so much; if he can rob us of our peace, he can rob us of our destiny.
Peace is a fountain of health for our bodies. (Prov. 14:30) We know that we are getting old; we are not getting any younger; however; many of our health problems are directly connected to the lack of peace in our lives. Stress is a powerful silent killer that is blamed for many of our illnesses today; from neck pain to cancer. No forgiveness, hate, anger, etc; are all powerful tools of the enemy that we are allowing to take over our hearts and minds and so they are robbing us of our health. Many of us in the body of Christ are not dying with fullness of life; we are dying full of bitterness with incomplete realizations of our destiny as the enemy rejoices and announces his victories and effective accusations.

Today the prayer is not for God to remove everything that is stealing our peace. In this world we will have tribulation; that is a Biblical promise. The prayer is for us to learn to have peace even in the mix of the frightening waves of bad news, the darkness of the unknown and the ferocious winds of the storms of life. May the Lord bless you today with the quiet power of His peace.

2 responses to “The Quiet Power of Peace”

Dennis Owen

August 16, 2010 at 1:43 pm

The followers of Jesus Christ have also been called to peace, Angel. When he called them they found their peace, for he is their peace. But in the Beatitudes Jesus told his followers that they must not only have “the quiet power of His peace” but make it. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the particular blessing which attaches to peacemakers is that “they shall be called sons of God.” For they are seeking to do what their Father has done loving people with his love. That is why “the pure in heart” are not called sons of God until they become “peacemakers.”

The pure of heart sees God. This kind of person has a passion for righteousness and compassion for people. The two put together become the third – the pure heart. The gospel says, “Blessed are those who are the pious poor and suffer for others and thus become the meek who inherit the earth; who hunger and thirst for righteousness and are merciful to others, and thus become the pure in heart – these see God.” This seeing of God is not through the self-emptying alone, but the self-emptying is in order to a filling with the positive qualities of vicarious suffering, of meekness, of hunger and thirst after righteousness, of tender mercy and a purity of heart. All these qualities prepare us to make peace with the people in our sphere of influence, so that God is seen, not apart from life, but in the midst of human relationships. Seeing God, therefore, means reconciliation, not emptiness.

But this vision of God and his glory is not the last beatitude — the last three beatitudes give us a vision of humanity and their need. “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called sons of God.” The Beatitudes do not leave us looking at heaven; they leave us looking at a wounded and warring earth. The purity becomes peacemaking — a purifying force. The poor in spirit and the pure in heart are not called the sons of God until they become lovingly aggressive and become peacemakers. And to that end we are to renounce all hostility and furor.

The type of character, depicted in the first beatitudes, is now loosed upon the world through the ministry of reconciliation. God could reconcile the world without us but has chosen not to. If God is going to do it in this age, God has chosen to do it through us or not at all. God has chosen to let us in on the fun of playing nursemaid to healing – body, mind and spirit. Peacemakers, therefore, not only bring peace between two conflicting parties, they actively work at making peace by bringing about wholeness and well-being among the alienated. God, in effect, has delivered the whole world into the hands of the Church. That should make us bold. How long before we start to notice and “walk out the land”? We must have such a loving aggressiveness that people become jealous and fall in love with God through us.

Peacemaking is a divine work. For peace means reconciliation and God is the author of reconciliation and of peace. The church has failed all too often because we are simply not speaking the same language, even among ourselves. We do not use words that heal. We grind the proverbial ax in order to say it “our way” Some Christ followers fail all to often because they play to stereotypes without a thought to the images they conjure in the minds of the people they have been called to share the gospel of peace. God forgive us. May we never let go our passion for sharing the peace of Christ that lies at the heart of the gospel. It is not written merely in the commands of Jesus to go and share, it is written into the very DNA of Christ followers. Hence, we must surrender to God, for He alone brings peace. God comes to us in Christ to make peace with us; and we participate in God’s grace as we go to our enemies to make peace. For the privilege of talking and doing Jesus gives us meaning a purpose beyond ourselves as God uses us, the Church as an instrument of grace for affecting positive change in the hearts and lives of others.

But this loving aggression pays the price of love and finds itself “persecuted” for righteousness’ sake. In a world where humanity loves its their chains and their conflicts and thinks them a part of themselves, since they have been with them so long, anyone who disturbs them by loving aggression will find the world kicking back in persecution. We must get used to the sight of our own blood. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, said Jesus, for this proves that you have not disturbed humanity in the slightest. The peacemakers become the persecuted. And we are mistreated by a society that hates to be disturbed from war to peace.

But the beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted” adds something to “Blessed are the peacemakers” that is really necessary to complete the character. It is one thing to be a peace-sharer; it is another thing to continue to be a peace-sharer in the midst of persecution. It is well that we should know something of un-peace for ourselves. For, if we can have peace in the middle of persecutions, we are then indeed peacemakers. Our peacemaking needs persecution to make our continued peacemaking effective, for we can not speak on peace with authority unless we speak out of the experience of peace in the course of disturbances. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, for one thing because he was a Prince when in the middle of persecution. As Jesus speaks peace through the blood of the cross, so we cannot speak of peace save through the blood of our own cross.

Jesus said that the poor in spirit have the kingdom of heaven and the persecuted peacemakers have the kingdom of heaven – why did he repeat this? Well, the kingdom of heaven only really belongs to the “pious poor” as they become “persecuted peacemakers.” That is, it is possessed not by a gracious disposition of soul by which we are emptied of self, but by the loving aggression of the persecuted peacemakers. The kingdom of heaven is not self-emptying, but self-emptying in order to receive the fullness of Christ.

The last beatitude, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad… for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you,” adds something to the previous two and completes them. It is not enough for us to be peacemakers and be persecuted for our effort. We must “rejoice and be exceeding glad” amid the persecuted peacemaking. Persecution gives us an opportunity to show the rest of the world how faith sustains us through the bad times as well as good. In fact, as a Christ follower I would grieve differently in the face of death because we believe that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us where we can spend eternity in the presence of the One who loves us the most.

Peace is a Person

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1. angelcasiano
  
  August 18, 2010 at 5:47 pm
  
  A great revelation of the Beatitudes. Thank you Dennis!
  
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