Will There Every Be Peace on Earth? Part 3
Continuing our theme over the last several months, I will remind you that the pathway to true and lasting inward peace in this world of tremendous trouble and constant strife begins with securing peace with God by the only way to the Father, which is through the Son. Jesus is the one Mediator, the only Reconciler, between God and man. (I Timothy 2:5) When we are reconciled to God by way of repentance of sins and believing faith in Jesus, we come to know the peace of God that is greater than our human understanding can comprehend.
The peace of God is a gift of his generous grace. This spiritual, inward peace is the reassuring presence of God; it is that “blessed assurance” of being in Christ, accepted by God, and adopted as his own children and heirs of his Kingdom; and it is knowing that all God’s promises are affirmed in Christ. In short, the peace of God is the inward gift of that unending and all-sufficient life in Christ. To use a familiar verse that expresses this kind of fullness of life, Psalm 23:1 states, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing” (NIV).
If you are indeed in Christ, you’ve no doubt known this peace that surpasses ordinary human knowledge and experience. Yet, questions remain: Why does this inward peace seem transitory and elusive? Why do we go through times of hopelessness and despair? Why are we so often longing for this peace we might have tasted before, baffled by its strange disappearance? Why doesn’t the peace of God remain with us no matter what? If God is always with us, why don’t we always have peace of mind and contentment of spirit?
The peace of God is a mark of our intimate, personal fellowship with God. However, when our fellowship with God is broken, interrupted, or diminished, our inward peace suffers accordingly. So how does this happen? It usually happens without much thought or intention. We don’t usually plan to break fellowship with God. We don’t consciously intend to interrupt our closeness with the Savior, which means that we typically become careless or negligent in our relationship with the Lord.
Our relationship with God is eternal, but our fellowship with God is conditional in the sense that there are numerous conditions we bring into our relationship with God that have an adverse affect on our fellowship with him. These adverse effects create a breach in our communion with God and create an absence of the peace we all desire. The absence of peace is not the problem, but it is a serious symptom of a deeper problem within that needs our attention and correction. In other words, the absence of peace is a signal that something has gone wrong.
I’ve been gardening for many years. It’s a hobby I enjoy for the most part, but over the last number of years I’ve been struggling to grow healthy tomato plants. Personally, I don’t see the point of having a vegetable garden without tomatoes (even if tomatoes are classified as a fruit!). No matter what variety of tomatoes I plant; no matter if I grow them from seeds or seedlings; no matter if I plant them in the ground or in pots, they all end with what is commonly called the wilt. What happens is this: the tomato plants grow quickly, and I begin to painstakingly stake them up. Beautiful little green tomatoes form on the vines as the plant continues to grow. I fertilize them, water them, and keep the weeds out so that the plants don’t have to compete with anything else. And, inevitably, just before the first tomatoes begin to ripen, the once vibrant tomato vines seem to go limp, wilting almost overnight, and my healthy plants become unhealthy plants and eventually die. Those in the know tell me that the main culprit of tomato wilt is root-knot disease caused by nematodes. (These are tiny parasitic worms in the soil.) It’s a root problem! Nematodes turn tomato roots literally into gnarly knots.
The absence of peace in a believer is like tomato wilt. We’ve got a knotty root problem! There may be outward signs of life, and even vitality, but something is wrong in the depths of our being. Reading about nematode root-knot disease and how to overcome it can get somewhat technical to somebody like me. So, also, is the absence of spiritual peace for the believer. It can get technical and tedious when we start to explore the Scriptures and try to make sense of the condition in which we may find ourselves. Yet, it’s far more serious than rotten tomatoes!
If the loss of spiritual peace follows the loss of fellowship with the Lord, then we must explore our own souls for an answer. Why? Because it would be utterly foolish and offensive to Him to look for the root cause in the Holy character of God. We must, therefore, search our own life for the answer. Better than that even, is to invite the Lord to search us, to be open to his infallible scrutiny, and ask him to shine the light of truth on the cause or causes of our spiritual wilt.
Psalm 139 is one of David’s most personal and profound prayerful hymns to his Shepherd-God. I would urge you to read it now and again, even if you are familiar with it already. Meditate long on what he says, especially the last two verses: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV).
Open or closed? That is, do we keep our hearts and minds and souls opened to the Lord or closed? Transparent or secretive? Trusting or doubting? Yielding or unyielding?
More to come very soon! Still working and always grateful for your support. Love you all! Hal