Do You Want Lasting Peace? Start Here

This is the season of mosquito bites. Mosquitos hone in on me while ignoring everyone else and cover my legs with bites. Those itchy pink spots cry out to be scratched, but scratching the itch creates a seemingly unending cycle. The more I scratch, the more I itch.

Short-term relief comes from giving in and scratching, but the moment I cease to scratch, the itch returns. Long-term relief only comes from calming the bite with a salve or cream and then leaving it to heal. Even better, I could proactively apply bug spray and protect myself from those itchy nuisances in the first place.

What Lasting Peace Isn’t

A bothersome mosquito bite is a lot like our desire for a calm, peaceful heart and mind. We feel the irritation. We crave to relieve the hurt feelings, the troubled mind, and the burdened spirit. We look for the short-term solutions often because we can’t spot the underlying issue let alone identify the long-term fix.

We scratch the itch by working harder, proving ourselves good and valuable.

We scratch the itch by focusing on other people and other problems while turning aside from the tumult inside.

We scratch the itch through self-pity, withdrawal, or dulling our senses.

We scratch the itch by relying on substances, food, or the reliable sympathy of a friend or family member.

The scratching brings momentary relief. Distraction. Numbing. Escape. But when the moment passes, we find nothing changed. We may even come to believe this is the best we can hope for—trouble, discomfort, and pain only dimly brightened in spots by our temporary fixes.

There are a lot of things we have mistaken for biblical peace:

The absence of pain, suffering, and heartbreak.

An escape from reality.

Something that exists within us waiting to be found or tapped into.

A pep talk encouraging us to “fake it until you make it.”

A hoped-for satisfaction in our bank account numbers, mirror reflections, or job promotions.

In Desiring God, John Piper calls out our distractions and bandaids this way: “We have accustomed ourselves to such meager, short-lived pleasures that our capacity for joy has shriveled. And so our worship has shriveled.”

Along with joy, our peace has shriveled to match our man-made solutions. But there is more. There is something greater.

Where It Starts

True, lasting peace starts with our reconciliation to God. Before we believe in the person and work of Jesus, we find ourselves from the time of birth to be in conflict with a Holy God. Our sin offends him, and the Bible tells us that apart from the righteousness of Jesus, we are enemies of God.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:10 ESV

Understanding this reality is the first step to accepting God’s rescue. When we put our faith in Jesus to save us from our sin, we are reconciled to God. No longer does he see our sin. He sees his spotless Son standing in our place and declaring us now righteous because of what he accomplished on the cross.

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 ESV

The former tension that existed between Creator and created is washed away, and we find ourselves at peace with God and welcomed into his presence as his child.

Once peace is made between ourselves and God, the peace of God can then be invited to make its home within our hearts.

It Begins with Trust

Biblical peace is based on Jesus alone. It’s not something we muster or will into existence. Even when we can’t claim to feel the peace of God, peace belongs to those who believe in the name of Jesus. Biblical peace can and does coexist with feelings of sorrow and confusion. One of the primary differences between worldly peace and biblical peace is the glorious knowledge that it doesn’t depend on us, and even in the midst of hardship Christians can claim security and hope for their souls because of Jesus.

Biblical peace is based on Jesus alone. It's not something we muster or will into existence. Click To Tweet

As we grow in our faith and relationship with God, we lean into this security trusting God with our future.

Isaiah 26:3 tells us God keeps us in perfect peace if we keep our minds on God and trust in him.

Isaiah makes a connection between focusing on God with our minds and our dependence on him. To trust God means to lovingly consider and seek him—his character, his unfailing record of faithfulness, his presence intertwined in our every moment. Isaiah goes on in the next verse to give us reason for our trust.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 26:4

Unchanging. Eternal. This is the God we trust, and when we trust, our minds are kept in peace. Peace comes from understanding the reality that we are sustained by an unchanging, eternal, good God.

Hope of Something More

Have you ever pushed through a hard workout, knowing that after a few more moments of extreme effort, you will finish your task and rest? Or maybe you’ve endured an uncomfortable or painful medical procedure and made it through by holding on to the knowledge that the discomfort is temporary. Or maybe you’ve worked long, hard hours at your job, looking forward to a planned vacation, a light at the end of the tunnel. Our struggles and efforts are made easier by the reward of something better.

That’s the way it is with our lives. When we understand our lifetime in the context of eternity, we see that there is much, much more to the story than our years of life on this earth. It’s impossible to fully conceive of the joy, the fulfillment, the relief we will have in heaven. We tend to view heaven as the end, the stopping point after hopefully a long, rich life, when in fact, heaven is just the beginning of the good part—the part without distortion, sin, or sickness.

The longer we dwell on this waiting reality, the more we are able to see our current lives with its sorrows and pain as temporary with the reward not far off. Knowing this helps us endure. Knowing this grows our capacity to feel at peace with our struggles while we await our greatest desire of going home.

We Are Not Alone

I don’t make light of our trouble this side of heaven, and neither does God. He knows each tear we’ve cried. In the midst of a broken world, God sent Jesus to dwell among us, to know our experience, and to sympathize with us. While we trust God and look to our future hope with him in glory, we are comforted in the present moment by his presence with us.

When Jesus’s time for crucifixion drew near, he said to the disciples:

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

John 16:32-33 (ESV)

Jesus was able to endure the knowledge of his coming death and the crushing weight of sin by knowing his Father was with him. He didn’t go to the cross alone even though many abandoned him. He shares these words with his friends to give them peace. Jesus overcame the world and sent a helper, the Spirit, so that we would never walk alone.

Peace for Today

We have access to true peace today. It doesn’t look like what our culture is selling. It’s deeper, eternal, and soul-settling. What’s one step you can take today to draw upon the peace Jesus purchased for you? Let me know in the comments!