Redefining Peace

You don’t get peace from your circumstances. You release your peace into them.

Even when you’re sitting on your favorite beach with a mimosa and nothing expected of you, enjoy every minute, but don’t let it define your peace. I love the beach. It’s a place that’s always been peaceful, restorative, and fun. I’ve used it as an escape when things have been difficult, but it’s not enough to fix the tough days you have to face when you go back.

Peace isn’t something you have to keep looking for, like you’re in an eternal game of Hide–n–Seek. And it’s not fuel you run out of and have to keep buying at high prices to get going again. If you’ve given your life to Jesus, then he’s given his to you, including his peace.

Peace is wholeness in your soul. It’s a complete heart, none of it missing or destroyed, even when things are lost and shattered around you. That seems impossible, I know. I’ve had my heart broken, and so have you. Some of you beyond words. But at my lowest, I realized I was defining my peace by my circumstances, not by who God is for me, or who I am in him.

I like things a certain way, and so do you. That’s okay, as long as those ways don’t get to determine how peaceful, loving, or joyful you are, or how peaceful, loving, and joyful others are allowed to be around you. When you stop trying to control your world in the name of peace, you become empowered to heal, bless, and transform it in the name of the Prince of Peace.

“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he’s done. Tell him every detail of your life, then his wonderful peace, which transcends our old natural ways of thinking, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will calm and heal your heart.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ, so keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that’s authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind—things to praise, not things to curse. Keep living and putting into practice all we’ve imparted to you, and the God of peace will be with you in all things” (Philippians 4:6-9, NLT, MSG, TPT, & my paraphrase).