Could Peace Still Exist?

Faith is hard to come by in our current situation. Without taking a deep dive into politics we can all agree that there are many major changes happening in the United States and other countries all around the world in the past few years. In my opinion, these changes are shifting us away from the ways of God, and we have seen plenty of examples of what happens when we turn our backs on God. With all of this happening right outside our doors and around the world, it is hard to see an end to the madness, pain, suffering, and wars being fought. As believers, we have been told to cling to the fact that there will be an end to this one day and it comes when Jesus returns on the clouds and calls us to our final dwelling place. If I am being honest, with every passing day, it becomes harder for me to buy into the idea that peace can still exist in this world. I find it hard to believe because I don’t see any evidence that things will be getting better any time soon. This is where faith comes into the picture and becomes very important for us as believers. Faith is believing even when we don't have the evidence.

Having faith amidst the struggles of the world is not a new concept. In fact, Hebrews chapter 11 gives a description of many times in which the people of God had to rely on their faith and less on the concrete evidence they had in front of them. For example, Noah began building the ark long before it began to rain, thus saving his entire family. When instructed by the Lord, Abraham picked up and moved his family to land unseen which lead him to the Promised Land and to being the father of a great nation. The Israelites choose to have faith that the sea that was parted around them would not come crashing down as they walked across and so they were able to cross untouched but the Egyptians were not so lucky. The Bible is filled with many stories of God’s people having to put their faith in God even when they didn’t know how it would turn out. Job chose to trust God in the middle of losing his land, family, and all of his belongings and God rewarded him with that in excess. Even Jesus Himself had to put faith in the Father when He was taken to be judged for a crime He didn’t commit, His sacrifice led to our souls being saved. In all of these examples, the people didn’t have proof that it was the right thing to do until it was finished. All of them had to keep moving forward despite not being able to see the outcome.

Our need to have faith in God above all things started at the beginning of the world. When God created Adam and Eve He gave them all they would ever need but told them not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. They obeyed at first but when the serpent intervene he put doubt into the mind of Eve which caused her to question God. It was at this moment she lost faith in what God had told her and decided to put faith in what she saw which was a beautiful fruitful tree. She began to wonder how something so wonderful would be withheld from her. She had taken her eyes off of what she knew to be true and put her faith in something other than God’s goodness and provision. We are just as guilty of doing this today. We question God, we question His goodness, His provision and mostly we question His timing. We see something we want and we go for it even if it goes against the will and the way of God. We jump ahead in the plan God has for us because we want it now. Instead of living by faith and allowing God’s timing to rule, we want it our way and on our timing. We struggle with not being able to see the plan, so we make our own. In doing so we fall directly into the trap that the serpent laid for Eve. He whispers in our ear, “Did God really say you couldn’t have that?”, and just like Eve we fall for it and go our own way. This takes us off the road to peace and puts us in the middle of a busy highway of self-service. This highway is going only in one direction and that is to pain, destruction, and torment. It is an existence that is very far from peace and this is evident in our world today.

As I stated before, I find it hard to believe that peace could still exist, but what I meant by that is that I don’t believe that peace can truly exist in this world. The world is filled with too much sin and selfishness to be able to harvest peace. The true peace that I am speaking about and that I crave comes only from the Lord above and will only be found when we choose to have faith in Him fully. It can only exist if we choose to have faith over fear. The world around us is destined for failure and death but if we have faith in God we are destined for something better. That means in the middle of war, pain, and suffering we must have faith that God is in control still and that He is the only one who can change the outcome. We know that the battles for our souls still rage on but the war is finished and God is the victor.

With all of this being said, I encourage you to place your faith in the things that are unseen, the things of the Lord, and not the things of the world that are fading. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we live by faith, not by sight.” Let us live this out fully by putting our complete trust in the Lord above. Although we are here on earth and in the world we do not have to participate in the things of the world. We can choose His peace over the panic of the world.