Peace, Peace, Wonderful Peace

The well-known author and historian H. G. Wells was quoted as saying, “I cannot adjust my life to secure any fruitful peace. . . . Here I am at 65 still seeking for peace.”

George Vaillant, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has spent his career researching adult development and recovery from schizophrenia and addiction. His extensive studies led Vaillant to the conclusion that happiness is more important than diet, weight, or heredity in life expectancy, and that that there is a strong correlation between deep relationships and well-being.

God’s Word tells us that a right relationship to God through His Son, Jesus Christ, is the key to happiness and deep, abiding relationships. Jesus said, just before going to the cross: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Peter P. Bilhorn wrote 2,000 sacred songs, and one of the best known is the song that begins: “There comes to my heart one sweet strain, A glad and a joyous refrain; I sing it again and again, sweet peace, the gift of God’s love.” That same peace was proclaimed by the Psalmist: “Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” (Ps.119:165) About 200 years later, the prophet Isaiah added: “Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandment! then had thy peace been as a river.” (Isa. 48:18) And, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” (Isa.26:3) Scores of books in the Bible speak of peace, and almost every book in the New Testament either begins with or closes with, “Grace be unto you, and peace.”

As I write these words, peace in this world seems so very remote. Personal peace, national peace, world peace. Armies are squaring off against one another in the east, west, and Mideast. They are poised for war; some of them are battling in madness with missiles and constant bombings. World peace, until the Prince of Peace comes to establish His reign of peace, will ever be only a dream.

Poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson told of a storm off a rocky coast that threatened the destruction of a vessel at sea and its passengers. In the midst of the storm, a passenger dared to make his treacherous and forbidden way to the pilot house, where he caught a glimpse of the steer man “lashed fast at his post holding the wheel unwaveringly, and inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea. The pilot saw the watcher and smiled.” Then the daring passenger made his way back to his waiting fellow passengers and gave out a signal of victory. “All is well,” he said. “I have seen the face of the pilot.”

Seeing the face of our Pilot, Jesus Christ, will enable us to face with courage the despair, discouragement, disbelief, disintegration of culture and time-honored mores that we see day by day, as well as the world-wide death due to famine, war, and unprecedented outbreaks of disease.

Laura Halsey found it: “There is a place of quiet rest, a place of perfect quietness, within a world of fear and dread, where human blood is being shed, there is a peace in God.” That peace can come to anyone, because “being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1) It is the peace that H. G. Wells and myriads of men will never find by seeking to “adjust” their lives to secure peace. Peace that passes all understanding (Phil.4:7) can only come through a personal relationship with the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, for we are “justified by His blood” and “saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8)

Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples, before His resurrected body ascended back to Heaven, and said: “Peace be unto you.” It is a peace that cannot be wrought by doing anything; it can only come by the grace of God through the gift of eternal life. It is available to all and anyone because of Christ’s death on the cross, and it is a peace that saves, satisfies, and secures.

Nicholas Ridley, a leader of the English Reformation, was burned at the stake for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the eve of his execution in 1555, his brother offered to spend the night with him in prison, but Ridley declined the offer, saying that he planned to sleep as soundly that night as ever—because he had the peace of God in his heart. Before going to the stake the next day, Ridley spoke to a fellow believer who was waiting the same death by fire: “Be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it.” They knelt in prayer by the stake, and in a few minutes were burned to death.

It is, without doubt, a “peace that passeth all understanding.”

“There comes to my heart one sweet strain, a glad and a joyous refrain, I sing it again and again; sweet peace, the gift of God’s love. Peace, peace, God’s peace, wonderful gift from above! Oh, wonderful, wonderful peace! Sweet peace, the gift of God’s love!” (P.P. Bilhorn)

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil.4:7)