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Understanding Peace

  

Matthew 5:9 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” 

There are two things that stick out to me when I read this scripture. For one, in order to be called “children of God”, we are to have peace: it’s a collective trait we must all share. The second thing is that the scripture didn’t say peace, it says “peacemakers”, implying some level of work to be done to receive it. Peace is inherited from God, but that doesn’t mean work is not required to receive it. Peace requires trust, and trust requires a full surrendering: completely submitting our problems to him, having solace in the fact that God’s security is bigger than our circumstances. 

As I've gotten older, I’ve always questioned what true peace is. Questions like “When will I ever reach peace?” or “Am I even deserving of peace?”. I don’t think I’m alone in asking these questions. Whether you have said it verbally or not, we’ve all wanted our situations to be better. We’ve all had a desire to live a better life, and I’m sure if we all had the option to live life with no problems: 8 billion people will line up, eager to sign that contract.

Maybe you are going through a particular situation: Grief? Sickness? Divorced parents? And maybe you’ve gone to God and asked, “When will this end?” or “Why me?”, and sometimes we may feel like God doesn’t care, or he’s not listening, but he is. I don’t want to be the person to say to you “Just trust God’s plan”, because that can come across as insensitive, and if we’re both being honest at times impractical. I want to show you that whatever situation you are going through, you don’t have to do it alone. You don’t have to experience life alone; you don’t have to worry about things alone, there is more to life than your problems.

Peace isn’t about never feeling sad or anxious about things, nor is it always being happy: it’s recognising that when you are in those states of emotions, whether positive or negative, you have a God to go to regardless. Peace is a step we all must take daily, and I think if we can all reach that point, then we’ve reached a level of peace that surpasses all understanding. I also don’t think peace simply ends in being an emotion: emotions are fleeting and at times are dependent on situations, certain circumstances, and people. Peace is a state: something that is constant, it isn’t affected by problems. It also doesn’t look the same on every person because we are all different. But through our individuality there is common denominator: our maker God. So, if there is one thing you take from this is that true peace can only ever be reached through God.

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