Focus: Where To Find Peace

Text: Jh.16:33

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

We live in a world of trouble. The world is a factory where troubles of every kind are fabricated. Ours is a world in which we are being squeezed by pressure daily - a world full of stress. Job says, "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Jb.5:7). Just being alive is a lot of stress. Man is a fallen creature who possesses inside him the potential to fail. Fallen man is trouble everywhere he is. Something in him stirs up trouble all around him. The devil and his demons, and man are the trouble the world has.

Corruption begets corruption. Evil begets evil. Sin gives birth to more sins. Man's refusal to say 'yes' to God has given rise or birth to all our woes. Forces of trouble are pushing and pulling us in different directions, creating chaos in their wake. It is an ocean of motion and the constant flux of life. No one escapes it even after we have become Christians.

Call it trouble, stress, or pressure, it is an inevitable consequence of being alive on planet earth. Man faces trouble whichever way he turns. He lives in constant fear of evil and death.

The believer in Christ is never exempted from trouble, not as long as he lives in this trouble-generating world. Paul says, "We are hard-pressed on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but are never deserted: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out!" (2Cor.4:8,9).

The Lord Jesus Christ never minced words when He said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." We live in a world where we are pummeled and pressured by diverse and thorny issues of life.

Where then may we find peace in this world? Is there a safe nest for the Christian in this world? The Lord Jesus Christ says, "In ME ye…have PEACE…" Peace is found not in a place, nor in any favorable circumstance, but only in the person of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that the believer finds peace. He is our life and our peace (Col.3:4; Eph.2:14). Isaiah describes him as "the Prince of peace." 

In Him we are insured and assured. In Him we experience the shalom of God - the wholeness and wellness that is guaranteed by the presence and promises of God.

His peace surpasses knowledge. We also find peace among those who possess the peace of God in them. Possessors of peace become givers of peace. They live peaceful lives and make peace their mission. Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace. It is by submitting to Him as the Prince that we experience His peace.

Stop looking for peace in all the wrong places! Stop looking for peace in the things of this world. Peace is solely located and localized in Christ. Hallelujah!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter