The world is restless. People chase peace in money, in pleasure, in distraction, and in a dozen other places, and still lie awake at night. The Bible offers a peace the world cannot give and cannot take away, but it comes in a certain order and from a certain source. Let us see what it says about peace, and how a troubled soul can find it.
Peace With God Comes First
Before a person can have peace within, he must have peace with God, and by nature he does not. Sin made us God's enemies. But through Christ that war can end. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). The cross is where the peace was made, God "having made peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20). Until a man is reconciled to God, every other peace he finds is only a truce on the surface while the deeper war goes on.
The Peace of God Within
Once we are at peace with God, He gives a peace that guards the heart. Paul wrote, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). This peace does not depend on everything going well. It passes understanding precisely because it can hold a person steady when by all reason he should be falling apart.
The Peace Christ Gives Is Not the World's
Jesus drew a sharp line between His peace and the world's. "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). The world's peace lasts only as long as the good times do. His does not. The prophet had promised it long before: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isaiah 26:3). The mind fixed on God is the mind at rest.
Peace Is Not the Absence of Trouble
We should be clear that this peace is not the absence of trouble. Jesus never promised His people an easy road. In the same breath He promised both peace and hardship: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The peace He gives is not a life with no storms. It is a settled rest in the middle of the storms, because the One who holds us has already overcome the world. A man can have deep trouble all around him and deep peace within at the very same time.
There Is No Peace for the Wicked
We must be honest about the other side of this. There is no shortcut to peace that goes around God. "There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22). A person can numb the lack of peace for a while with noise and pleasure, but he cannot fill it, because sin and peace cannot live in the same heart. The only road to peace runs through repentance and the cross. There is no other way to quiet a guilty conscience than to have it cleansed.
Peace With One Another
The peace God gives is also meant to flow outward, into how we treat people. "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men" (Romans 12:18). We are to "Follow peace with all men" (Hebrews 12:14) and to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). So make your peace with God through Christ, let His peace stand guard over your heart, and carry that peace into every relationship you have. The world cannot give this, and once you have it, the world cannot take it away.