Advent – Peace

Advent: Peace

Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
— Psalm 119:165, ESV

O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
— Psalm 83:1, ESV

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 16:33, ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. — Romans 5:1-5, ESV

What is peace? It is something that we all long for but do we really know what it is?

Absence of war? Yes, but that’s an incomplete definition.

Stillness and silence? “Speak now or forever hold your peace”. Yes, but it is still incomplete.

Tranquility and favor? More of the meaning of peace but still not complete in itself.

The Hebrew word translated as peace is shalom. It embodies the concept of wholeness and completeness, stillness and silence, tranquility and favor  as does the New Testament Greek work is eirene How are we made complete?

Psalm 119:165 gives us an answer; we obtain great peace when we love God’s law. In loving God’s law and placing ourselves in His care, we long for Him to speak into our lives; like the psalmist, we ask Him not to keep His peace Deafness was associated with being mute, so if God doesn’t speak to us, by association, He also does not hear our cries.

In this season, probably more than ever, we need peace. But like our view of hope, we need to shift from an object to a person – the Prince of Peace. Jesus is our Peace and makes us complete by re-establishing our relationship with God the Father by the grace granted us in His death and resurrection. He speaks on our behalf before Father God and our cries are heard. Through good times and bad, we can trust that we may have Peace because He overcame. Let us like the angels at His birth sing, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men”. Worship Him and share Peace this season.

Steve Pierce

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