True Peace

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Romans 8:6

Peace is the speech topic of so many world leaders and generally the aim of humanity. Represented by symbols and gestures recognized by people everywhere, this elusive ingredient to the recipe of happy existence seems, in our troubled and hectic world, harder than ever to find and harder still to maintain. Perhaps the problem is not going to be fixed on a world-wide basis, until it is fixed on a personal, individual level. Should peace truly reign in every person’s heart, then communal peace and peaceful co-existence would not be such a problem. The question then is how to get that peace in each individual’s heart and mind?! Is there an answer?

Martin Luther King is quoted as saying that “…peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice”.

The daily struggle of the human family is to gain and maintain life, with peace as its highest ideal. A peaceful life, content and free from the trauma and fear which characterizes our existence seems to be everyone's ultimate goal. To that end we work, strive and labour.  All kinds of compromises, many very poor, are made in an effort to ‘keep the peace’. In vain however, we reach for this desirable quality in life, if we strive in our own strength and by our own carnal values. The carnal mind is selfish, sensual and self-serving. It limits, obstructs and narrows the flow of life; by its very values, it destroys the very peace we all seek and will ultimately results in death. 

So many wrongly think that surrendering to the carnal mindset by adopting the trends and image of the world, following what everyone else is doing, being part of the crowd, and removing the tension of living a consecrated life for God, even at the cost of their soul, is where peace may be found. Some, when they first leave the ways of God and turn their backs on obedience to His principles, sense a momentary and false peace, a release of the tension. The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit ends and the pressure appears to leave them. This is not true peace - it is surrender to the enemy. The temporary relief is due to their laying down their spiritual weapons and ceasing the fight against the tyranny of the flesh. Deceived by this seemingly ‘positive’ result they tread down the path of self-destruction. Led by an illusion, which continues to appeal to their flesh, like the proverbial donkey after the carrot, they continue to travel away from God, only to find further down the road that nothing really satisfies, and not only they have no true, lasting peace, but worse that they have sold out the Prince of Peace and are now under the yoke and slavery of a merciless tyrant! No true peace exists there, only sorrow, degradation and ultimate death.

Man’s best efforts to bring about peace, through reforms, edicts, programs, therapy and a host of other schemes  continue to fail or at best produce a very poor facsimile - the equivalent of a plastic bauble rather than the real jewel of peace. The removing of God and His principles from humanity’s efforts can only spell ruin and compromise. Peace without the Giver of Peace is neither true, lasting nor altruistic. Peace which is not true peace, is a deception; peace which doesn’t last is self-defeating; peace which doesn’t reach out to touch and bless others is selfish and highly perishable!

Here then is the bible recipe and answer for all that the human heart desires. The message is clear, real peace cannot be obtained by means other than a godly, spiritual mind. True personal peace seems to be not the removal of life’s irritations and inconveniences, but the result of a stern judgment, a sentence brought against our fallen carnal nature for the death it delivers when we subscribe to its desires and promptings. Through the power of the Spirit of God, we must judge what we think and do by God’s standards, resist fleshly desires, and say NO to our carnal nature. This may not remove the tension in the short term, but it will in due course, allow a different mind to the fore, a mind guided and led by the Spirit of God and His word.  Spiritual mindedness is a surrender to God and His ways; It is thinking of and doing life from God’s perspective not our own; it is an embracing of the values that judge our fallen nature and free us from the bondage of the sin it fosters. The spiritual mind can reason in the spiritual realm, comprehend spiritual truth and make us spiritually liberated, set free! This is where true personal peace is found! The result of the spiritual mind is life and peace!

Jesus said : "...my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you...". This is the kind of peace worth having! God-initiated, preserved and eternal peace, is the kind of peace which is beyond all human understanding and yet is ours for the having through the Lord Jesus. Lifelong, God-less efforts to find true and lasting peace any other way will fail. However a person whose mind is connected to, settled in, obedient and practiced in the spiritual thoughts and principles of God, will experience the kind of abundant life, peace and contentment not found anywhere else or by any other means. Now that's true living!

See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion