6. The Pursuit of Peace (His Perfect Peace #6)
In this series we’ve tried to define the qualities of the peace that the Bible claims comes only from God. He alone is able to give us deep peace with Him, with one another and experience deep peace in our hearts. That of course is where we started as we saw how God is the God of Peace, Jesus is the Prince of Peace and peace is an integral part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the fruit He is working in our lives. We have sought to identify the things that deprive us of a sense of peace in our lives. Things like the sin in our hearts that drives a wedge between us and God, the desires that rage within us and produce conflict within our relationships with others and our deep feelings of anxiety, worry and discontentment that we battle against. Now we will attempt to very practically consider how we might go about pursuing, seeking or striving for peace. These words are used in four Bible passages:
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14 (also 1 Peter 3:11)
Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace. Psalm 37:17
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ Jeremiah 29:7
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Romans 14:19
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)
I think these are really interesting verses that all communicate a lot about what it might look like to pursue peace. The reality is that we are all constantly pursuing something. What are those things in life that we find ourselves striving for? I think people are striving for love, friendship, money, status, promotion, significance and much more. These are of course all good things, but they are also things that we can make into ultimate things. What we can be sure of is that none them tend to happen without considerable effort. Pursuing something involves proactivity. It will take effort to pursue peace, it will not just happen either!
1. The Result of Pursuing Peace (Psalm 34/37):
Psalm 34 was written when David was on the run from King Saul. After the events at Nob, David ends up fleeing to Gath in the land of the Philistines. But they recognise David. This makes him afraid of King Achish (Abimelek) and so he pretends to be insane (see 1 Sam 21:10-15). This was a dangerous situation for David who had slain their champion, Goliath. It is also worth nothing that in the preceding verses he had only just been given Goliath’s sword by Ahimelek the priest in Nob. So here is David, Israel’s great giant slayer showing up in Philistine territory with the sword he took from Goliath! God was, however, at work and the King drove David away saying that he had enough madmen already!
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Psalm 34:4-7
In the Psalm, David praises God and he glories in Him. David testifies that he sought the Lord and He answered him and delivered him from his fears (v4). If I am honest, this deep exclamation of praise seems somewhat at odds with David’s actions here. Was feigning insanity really a godly response to the situation he was in? I cannot say I am convinced that it was, but either way, David is definitely quick to give praise to His God for bringing him through this difficult situation.
David also understands that the angel of God encamps around those who fear Him (v7). He invites us to taste and see of the Lord’s goodness and he urges us also to fear the lord. Why? Because those who do will lack nothing. Even lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who fear God lack no good thing. If we love life, and desire to see good days (v12), then we most keep our lips from evil. Then he urges us to turn from evil and do good – to seek peace and pursue it. David was not all about all action battles – no he recognised the need to seek peace. If we are to find peace within then we need to learn from David in practicing thankfulness and learning to take our troubles to Him.
Encouragingly, David goes on to say that the Lord has His eyes on the righteous and hears their cries. He says God is close to the broken hearted and the crushed-in-spirit (v18). There is no other answer to our troubles than to find rest for our souls in God.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” St. Augustine
2. The Harvest of Pursuing Peace (Hebrews 12:1-14):
In Hebrews 12 there is a fascinating link between peace and God’s discipline. The writer of Hebrews says we should not make light of the Lord’s discipline. No, God is deeply at work in all of us and He therefore disciplines those He loves.
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:7-11
Discipline is not pleasant, but the writer urges us to look not at the process of discipline, but at the result of it. To that end, we read that those who are trained by discipline will enjoy a harvest of righteousness and peace. This word trained comes from the world of athletics and we know that lots of hard work must be put in if we are to reap the benefits. If we are to reap a harvest of peace and righteousness in our lives, we too need to endure hardship as discipline. The example here is of Jesus Himself who:
2 For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3
Throughout the book of Hebrews the writer has been encouraging their predominantly Jewish audience to stick with Jesus rather than going back to their roots. The writer records them as a great cloud of witnesses and calls us to run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Being at peace is about resting in the purpose and plan of God. Therefore we are called (v12-13) to strengthen our weak knees and our feeble arms. We are to make level paths for our feet so that we find healing. True peace is found in having a close relationship to God and a deep trust in what He is doing. In the following verses the writer urges their readers to make every effort to live in peace with everyone:
14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14
3. The Cost of Pursuing Peace (2 Timothy 2:21-24):
I hope its already been clear throughout this blog that there is a necessary cost involved with pursuing peace. Pursuing peace means not pursuing something else. Here Paul is urging Timothy to flee the evil desires of youth. Instead, he wants Timothy to pursue faith, love and peace. In the proceeding verses Paul is talking about cleansing ourselves so that we would be:
21 …made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:21
The easiest thing to do is to just continue living our lives our way. If anyone, or anything, gets in our way, we will work to get our own way. If, however, we want to pursue peace there is going to be a cost. If we want to be truly useful to our master and prepared for all He has for us, then we must make some tough choices. We’ve saw this especially in the post on conflict – as far as it depends on us we are to live at peace. Paul goes in the following verses to warn Timothy against foolish and stupid arguments which produce quarrels. How can we teach others if we are resentful and quarrelsome? How can we help others come to their senses if we cannot find a way to gently instruct them? Being peace-makers amongst the chaos of the relationships and conflicts going on all around us will come at a steep price, but in doing so, we become useful to our maker.
4. The Challenge of Pursuing Peace (Jeremiah 29:4-7):
These final verses occur within a letter sent by Jeremiah to the exiles living in Babylon. They had been taken into captivity for a period of 70 years and the word of the Lord through Jeremiah must have come as something of a surprise. Rather than trying to rise up against their captors God tells them to settle down and be a blessing in their new context:
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ Jeremiah 29:4-7
I love these words which have always been significant for me as I live out my call from God, in the city to which He has called me. For our purposes here, please primarily notice v7 and how it says we are to seek the peace of the city to which God has called us. This must have been so counter-cultural for the Israelites.
God had always called His people to be a blessing to others, but now they were being called to be a blessing to their enemies. God was calling them to bless those who had destroyed Jerusalem and carried them into exile. Moreover, they were to pray for them and work proactively for God’s peace (shalom) and prosperity in this city. If we want to pursue peace, then we too will often find ourselves at odds with the culture around us.
Afterword
I trust that these words will be an encouragement to you as you begin to put into practice the steps we have been talking about in this series to help us experience a deeper peace with God, see a greater sense of peace within and see lasting peace in our circles of influence. To see this happen, we must be committed to peace and be willing to do whatever necessary to pursue it, even when it flies in the face of all that is going on around us.
See other posts in this series: