“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy , PEACE, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

Some days peace is the attribute of the Fruit of the Spirit that is the hardest for me to grasp. Yet, I desperately long for it to saturate my heart, mind, and soul. I desire to have peace be so tangible in my life that it graces those around me with it. I want to live as a peacemaker, not a “peacetaker”!

Lately, I have faced overwhelm. Too much to do and too little time to get it done. Laundry piling up, dirty dishes in the sink, tripping over wet shoes, and wet dogs in the mudroom. Recently a two-week-long extreme cold weather hit us, temperatures dipping as low as 28 below causing all kinds of chaos on the ranch. Feed trucks didn’t want to start, frozen pipes in the house and at the stock tanks. It was an all-day ordeal getting cattle fed and ice chopped at watering holes. Added to this sense of overwhelm, I had an injured hand that couldn’t grasp the strings on a bale of hay or hang on to a feed bag. I’d hit that place of exhaustion, feeling frazzled and at the end of my physical limits. 

I would finally sit down at the end of the day, thinking that I could relax by mindlessly scrolling through social media while my husband turned the tv on to the news. Turns out this isn’t as relaxing as I’d hope it would be! Over and over I saw instances of people slowly turning on one another. . . attacking, accusing, and berating. . . it made me realize that people really don’t like one another very much unless they can completely agree on every single issue or conflict that arises! With every post, comment, and thread I read; with each news report I listened to, my sense of calm was decreasing while my anxiety level increased. So many things were clamoring for my time and attention, hundreds of different voices telling me what I need to think and believe. 

All of it had stolen my sense of peace. 

I set my phone aside, kissed my husband goodnight, and said, “I need to go to bed and hopefully enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep!”

Instead, I tossed and turned; strife, stress, and a tired body kept me fitful and unrested until waking up in the early morning hours to face the chaos of it all over again. I cried out to God, “I just want some peace and quiet in my life!” 

The reality is that life gets chaotic at times, leaving us feeling frazzled and worn. Taking care of family, handling the day in and day out responsibilities of life, busyness, conflict, dealing with difficult relationships and watching increased tension, division, and uncertainty in our country tends to smother our sense of peace.  

To be honest, the biggest thief of peace in my life can often be my own hard heart; the way I react to stressful situations surrounding me with anger, impatience, resentment, and harsh criticism. Generally what happens when I get to that point is I become stagnant, stopped in my tracks, paralyzed, and unable to do much more than trudge through my day – just trying to survive but not really thriving. 

If you are a human being doing life here on planet earth, my bet is that you can relate to this sense of lost peace.

I believe we each have an innate desire and need for peace in our lives. We all want to experience peace; but just like with the attributes of love and joy, we often seek it from the wrong places. We look for it to come from outward sources, or from somewhere deep inside ourselves. When life is falling apart around us because of chaos, we try to take stock of what we can control and how we can produce our own peace. 

Striving for peace, I usually try several different avenues to experience a calm and stillness within my soul. I try breathing differently, refocusing my thoughts, changing something about my circumstances, setting boundaries, walking away from certain relationships that zap my peace, placing limits on my activities, removing myself from chaotic situations, simplifying my life, or going outside to clean a barn or chicken coop, ride my horse or escaping to nature as a way to fill my heart with the peace I so desperately seek.

These are all exercises in promoting peace that does have benefit, yet I’ve found that true and lasting peace can only be found in the Lord. When I seek peace from anything other than His Spirit, it becomes a short-term fix to a long-term problem. I put a bandaid on a gaping hole and hope it will produce lasting peace, but I find it’s only temporary because living life in this imperfect world means that chaos and uncertainty will continue to be part of life. Pretty soon that bandaid won’t hold the seeping wound of overwhelm, pain, loss, uncertainty, and fear that faces me.

Merriam Webster defines peace as “the freedom from civil disturbance; freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, harmony in personal relations.”. In other words, the only way we can ever experience peace is if there is an absence of any kind of disturbance; if all is well in the world and within our own personal relationships, or if we never face any kind of overwhelming circumstances then we will experience peace.

Well, I think we all know that a life devoid of any kind of disturbance is not possible! Every day is fraught with disturbance; therefore peace according to the world’s standards is completely unattainable! I can’t think of anything more depressing than that. We experience peace for a moment, but something happens to sweep it away the next. 

Human beings were born with a desire to know and experience peace, however we were also born to be at odds with one another. . . war, disagreements, disappointments, division, hate, unmet expectations, discord, jealousy, greed, pride, selfishness. . . it all contributes to what robs us of peace.

At the top of the list of what threatens peace is the spiritual warfare I believe is the chief cause of the tumult we face in life. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Satan wants to rob us of any sense of peace that we might have because he can create all kinds of havoc and destruction when it’s absent in our lives. He wants to keep us stuck and ineffective in what God has called us to do; stealing our peace is a great way for him to do that. He wants to convince us that our contentions are with one another, but the truth is that our peace-stealing-wrestling matches are actually with him. . . and he has no power over us. . . not even the power to steal our peace. Not when it’s the peace God gives to us.

Because the Bible speaks of a different kind of peace than the world knows. . . it’s a peace that’s possible even if everything around us is falling apart. The peace here is “eirēnē”, it’s a restful calm and is the result of a harmonious relationship with God.

It’s “the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is” (From “The Outline of Biblical Usage by Larry Pierce). This peace has more to do with the serenity brought on because of a secure and steadfast relationship with God than with any external factors surrounding us. It is that sweet and calm serenity that engulfs us at the realization that we are reconciled with the God of the Universe. 

This is a peace that makes it possible to not only have reconciliation with God, but also with one another. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” (Mathew 5:9 NIV). When we have the peace that the Spirit of God works into our hearts and our lives, we strive to prevent contention and we promote peace instead. We cultivate harmony with others by recognizing this attribute of the fruit that the Spirit of God has given to us, and we pursue it as we would chase after a valuable treasure. 

“What is God’s peace? The unruffled serenity of the infinitely-happy God, the eternal composure of the absolutely well-contented God.”  

C.H. Spurgeon

How do we do this when so much about life and this world we live in contends for the opposite of peace? We just have to look a little further in Ephesians 6:12-15 to find the answer to this; “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” 

We prepare ourselves to confront conflict with the gospel because the gospel is ultimately what brings lasting peace. When we walk prepared to share the peace we’ve found in the gospel, we do so in the reality that we securely belong to God, that Jesus’ death on the cross prepared the path of peace, and then we can’t help but share this peace with those around us.

Conflict fades, and reconciliation, love, friendship, and accord are strengthened. . . even with those we disagree with. Preparing ourselves by putting on the “shoes” of the Good News means that peace is always attainable, even in the most chaotic and contentious circumstances. 

This is the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7). It’s a peace that we can’t even comprehend, explain or understand, we can only experience it. It’s a peace that guards our hearts and our minds through Jesus. Jesus is a peace-giver, He is the reason that peace can remain even in the midst of the most trying and painful circumstances. His peace has the power to bring together those who have the greatest animosity towards one another. His peace is what brings solitude and calm to our frazzled souls. Knowing that Christ is our peace means that we can surrender our burdens, anxieties, disagreements, doubts and fears to Him. 

No other source of peace in this world has the capacity to do this, because Jesus doesn’t just give us peace, He IS Peace. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

At His death on the cross, Jesus gave us this very precious gift, “ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27). We can experience His peace because He has taken our sins away; our hearts are not troubled, our lives are not defined by fear or chaos. 

And, with Paul, I give you this benediction: “Now the God of peace be with you all” (Romans 15:33).