ANATOMY OF PEACE

What is peace?  Being able to place one’s trust in the One that no one has seen.  It’s relying on One that thwarts the plans that your enemies had against you. It’s being extricated from the crashes of life.  Peace is being able to rest in the mighty fortress that our God is. 

When I was 16, I found myself back at the high school one weekday evening.  It was an after school assignment for a civics class.  We had to sit through a school board meeting.  Unlike most, this one started early and ended that way too.  All through the course of the gathering, I thought I heard a group of four of my peers, sitting in the back row, planning to cause me harm.  When the meeting ended, I successfully dodged the foursome—that is until I got within a hundred yards of my car—the quartet had suddenly become the new hood ornament for my ’71 Chevelle.  “There he is, guys.  Let’s get him.”  The leader wasn’t exactly soft spoken, though I do believe he carried a big stick. 

I was exactly one mile from home, and the excitement of the situation caused me to do something I never did before or since—a five minute mile—even leapt over a 3’ high fence in the process. 

When I got home I couldn’t talk—or breathe—for about 15 minutes.  My father asked where the car was—I told him.  We got in his car and rode over to the high school.  Sure enough, the four were waiting there, and my dad—who was not terribly impressive physically, got out of the car.  “Hello, boys,” he said cheerfully, “Hi,” they said in unison—and they left.  I thought I was going to be left with just one parent, and he singlehandedly cleared out the whole group with two words!  I drove home part embarrassed, part grateful.  I was almost the victim of a gang that mistakenly thought I was a narc (narcotics informant)—and dad was my hero. 

Peace is allowing yourself to be positioned under the Father’s protective hand—rejoicing in the mercy He affords, showing you the way out of any dangerous situation.  You may repulse others, but God will cause those that despise you to become despised by others, and those that looked down upon you will be looked down upon—that’s peace.

Do you revere Him?  Does He hear your voice?  Your cry?  If you do—if He does—you are peace's definition.


Psalm 31

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
 ²Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
 ³For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.
 ⁴Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
 ⁵Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
 ⁶I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
 ⁷I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
 ⁸And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
 ⁹Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
 ¹⁰For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
 ¹¹I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
 ¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
 ¹³For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
 ¹⁴But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
 ¹⁵My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
 ¹⁶Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.
 ¹⁷Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
 ¹⁸Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
 ¹⁹Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
 ²⁰Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
 ²¹Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
 ²²For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
 ²³O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
 ²⁴Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.