When Micah had prophesied about the coming of Jesus he said
in Micah 5:5 ‘This One will be our peace’
In the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Sochi Russia the
announcer mentioned that many of these countries are at war with each other, yet during the
Olympics they put aside their differences for a common goal to compete, watch
and cheer in peace.
While searching for a Bible verse on peace in my concordance
I noticed that peace is mentioned over 500 times in the bible. Despite how many times God talks about peace
our world is in turmoil with wars on many levels. We have world wars, national wars and civil
wars. Then we fight with our friends, our neighbors, strangers and our
families.
All of this turmoil in our lives comes from wanting to
control or lord over a person, a nation, a race, or even an animal. Without peace we covet what others have and
become jealous or fearful of things such as their money, status, race, country, change
or even the peace they have. In most
cases we cause turmoil because we don’t have the peace Jesus came to give us.
The Pharisees were afraid Jesus was going to destroy the
little power they had, so they had to get rid of Him; instead of realizing the
peace he could bring to their lives of control, rules and power. The Pharisees had very little power because
during the time of Jesus they were not a free country. They were under the Roman empire. The Roman empire coveted power and conjured, through wars, the land around them. They
did not have inner peace either.
This type of power, which often leads to wars and killing
or hurting innocent people, has been around since the Cane killed Abel. Cane was jealous that
God favored Abel’s sacrifice. Instead of inner peace he murdered Abel.
People wish for and want world peace. That will never happen because peace starts with accepting Jesus and allowing
him to transform our lives. We all have a sinful nature and only the power
of God can change our lives and give us inner peace. When we have
inner peace the turmoil of the world grows smaller.
Imagine what the world would be like if everyone knew Jesus
and followed him and allowed God to take control.
7:00 AM |
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Comments (2)
Great points. I completely agree. Even as Christians we make jokes sometimes to our friends (at least I do) like "if you weren't my friend, I wouldn't like you, you're so beautiful." OR "I'm so jealous of your..." these things automatically create unrest in our own hearts which eventually flow out onto those around us. God is the only peace we can count on.
So comforting that we can peace in the midst of turmoil and trials. Thank you for sharing.