Bible Reading: 2 Chro.27; 2 Thes 3:10-18.
“Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (KJV)
Peace is often explained as tranquility, freedom from disturbance or a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended. Every human being seeks peace and everyone has peace at one time or the other, but the desire is to have peace at all times.
In order to have constant peace, you need to get to the source of peace. The Prince of Peace is the Lord Jesus Christ ( Isaiah 9:6) and He is the only one who can ensure you have peace always. 2 Thessalonians 3:16 (KJV) says: “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.” For Jesus to give you peace, there are a few things he has laid down for you to do. First you must accept him as your Lord and Saviour. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) the bible says: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Thus if you were full of worries before, the moment you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and you truly surrender everything to him, he will take all your challenges away.
But we have quite a number of Christians that still do not have peace always because they have not surrendered all. One of the requirements of being a Christian is obedience to the word of Christ. Isaiah 48:18 (KJV) reminds us: “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:” One of the commandments is that you should not worry over anything but make all your requests known unto God by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving ( Phil. 4:6).
Also to have peace always, you have to focus on God and seek first his kingdom and its righteousness (Matt 6:33). This may be difficult particularly when you are facing some challenges that appear insurmountable, but it is at this period that you really need to focus on God.
Of recent, I had a major financial storm and it appeared I may not get out of it as all our business streams of income did not only dry up but the prospect of bringing them back to life kept getting dimmer by the day. I fasted and prayed and everything in the physical appeared to be getting worse. To make it worse, the business had a major obligation to one of our dear customers that if we did not meet could lead to the customer calling in all her investments with us and may also affect some other businesses as the news filters out.
So I kept on focusing on God and then God spoke to me that he would intervene and make way for me. God will speak to you at your time of need in Jesus name. And I had peace . While still working on various options that I was pursuing and trusting on God, we were able to meet the obligations within the time frame. So it dawned on me if I had worried every day and possibly caused bodily harm to myself as a result, God would still have done it. Then the import of Phil 4:6 dawned more on me and the reality that only Jesus can give true peace always.
Prayer point: Father, help me to focus on you always so that I can have peace always in Jesus name.
Bro. Biodun Oyapero