Peace: The Fruit Of The Spirit

The fruit of the Spirit is . . . peace.

Galatians 5:22

Peace carries with it the idea of unity, completeness, rest, ease, and security. In the Old Testament the word was shalom. Many times when I meet Jewish friends I greet them with “Shalom.” And often, when I greet my Arab friends I use a similar term that they use for peace, “salam.”

Recently as I watched the televised report of passengers disembarking from a hijacked plane, I saw terror, horror, and fear on their faces. But one woman had a little child in her arms, calmly sleeping through it all. Peace in the midst of turmoil.

Isaiah said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3). This is the picture of any Christian who stands alone on life’s spiritual battlefield, by faith garrisoned round about with God’s holy weapons, and in command of the situation. Such a man is not troubled about the future, for he knows who holds the key to the future. He does not tremble on the rock, for he knows who made the rock. He does not doubt, for he knows the One who erases all doubt.

When you and I yield to worry, we deny our God the right to lead us in confidence and peace. Only the Holy Spirit can give us peace in the midst of the storms of restlessness and despair. We should not grieve our Guide by indulging in worry or paying undue attention to self.

What are you worried about? Why?

Our Father and our God, I rest in Your peace. Help me focus my mind always on You and know Your great calmness in my soul. Give me the quiet confidence to face life day by day, come what may, just as Your Son, Jesus, did in the midst of His enemies. Through Him I pray. Amen.

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