Peace the World Cannot Give

Yet how can we reach this peace?

(Pobi Menne / Cathopic.com)

In all of our anguish, our daily chaos, the fear that surrounds us, where can true peace be found?

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“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

(John 14:27)

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The peace the world cannot give, the peace of Christ, is the only true peace. This is something Christ promises us—this He gave to us.

Yet how can we access such deep peace in a world of immense disarray?

All too often we block the movements of the Spirit, we halt Divine peace before it can reach us. This is not a purposeful intention: quite the opposite, in fact. We all long for peace—true inner rest, authentic connection with the Divine Source of Love.

We don’t want to block this, yet we often do. Why?

Fear. Unrest. A need to feel safe, which creates a need to control.

“Since we are fearful people, the hardest challenge we face is the reality of our losses and how to let go of the illusion of control, the challenge to go beyond our fears and to trust that one day we will be liberated from the bonds that hold us captive.”

(Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit)

To allow that peace to enter, we have to ask.

Yet it’s not as simple as a mere intention directed toward God. Often we ask, and when we don’t experience immediate results—when our anxiety doesn’t lessen, when our fear threatens to overwhelm us, when we continue to feel inner turmoil—we assume our prayers haven’t been answered, and we give up praying.

Don’t do that! Remember that ever-persistent widow, and be like her.

(Luke 18:1-6)

Our prayers have been answered—they always are. “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8).

If we continue to feel fear, anxiety or restlessness, that could mean we still have lessons God wants to teach us, or areas He’s revealing that need to be healed.

It could also indicate that we haven’t yet given up our need to control. We struggle to direct our lives—to force certain outcomes, to change situations to fit our ideal. And we grieve—or get angry—when things don’t work out as we hope.

The operative word is we.

What we want—not what God wants for us.

We’ve heard it said, again and over, yet it bears repeating: God knows what’s best for us, and that’s what He gives.

“Consider the lilies of the field …” (Matt. 6:28)

(Photo by Barthelemy Rigaud on Unsplash)

The peace the world cannot give—Christ’s peace—can be felt in our soul when we stop trying to block it with our need to single-handedly control our lives. This isn’t to say we should stop making plans, direct our lives in certain ways, or discern what God desires us to do.

What it does mean is that we give up attachment to the outcome of our efforts.

We give the outcome to God.

We can’t surrender some things to God, but not others. We have to give our all—just as He gives us His all.

Trust that He knows the good—for He is the Good. Lead your life with Spirit-enriched discernment and wisdom. Yet leave the outcome of all situations to God, praying daily that His will be done.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Pray, leave everything in His hands, ask Him for good to come from all situations—especially when you make a wrong turn or a mistake in discernment. Allow His peace to flood your heart, enveloping your soul.

This is the peace the world cannot give—because the world cannot give even a modicum of true peace. Only He can.