Peace

For he is our peace.

Ephesians 2:14

For as long as I can remember there have been conferences and studies, plans, and supposedly innovative ideas for bringing peace to this earth. Organizations have been created, much money and time have been spent, books have been written . . . all in an effort to find a formula that would bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.

World War I was called “the war to end all wars,” but it wasn’t—not for the United States and not for most of the rest of the world. As I write, there are fifty wars occurring somewhere in the world. Whether men shoot and fight one another or not, there is “warfare” in the home; warfare between husband and wife, between parents and children, between brothers and sisters, between neighbors, between bosses and employees.

Why? What can be done to bring peace in all of these situations? The reason for war is that we have rejected God’s provision for peace. Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” So, peace is not man’s to give. It comes from Christ. We war with one another because of sin, which is a declared state of war against God.

Only Christ can cancel sin and create a peace treaty with God and then between men. When the angel pronounced peace on earth, good will to men, it was a universal pronouncement for any who would accept this Bethlehem baby as his or her Savior and for no one else.

Do you know this peace? It can be yours today simply by asking for it. God’s gifts are free, but He is waiting to be asked.

Our Father and our God, peace in this world seems so elusive and fleeting. We grasp it for a moment, then it’s gone again. It is not within our power to establish and maintain peace on earth. Give us lasting peace, Father, through Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His name I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).