prince of peace

… and he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

When we come to this time of year, many of us if not all, will receive a Christmas card that wishes us peace. This sums up for me many images. For example: the deserted paradise beach, sitting with a book in front of an open fire, the cessation of war and conflict, quietness, feuding families speaking civilly to one another or a walk along a beach beside the winter sea. “Oh”, we say, “oh for a bit of peace and quiet!”

The truth is, in my home this Christmas, there will be little in the way of quiet. The family will descend and hopefully there will be happy and excited grandchildren in attendance! When they go friends will come and again the idea of what many of us consider being ‘peace and quiet’ will be happily shattered. For some however, the idea of it being quiet this Christmas will be a difficult one as missing loved ones are remembered. Christmas can be a difficult and cruel time.

When in the scripture it talks of the one to come as the ‘prince of peace’ it has three quite different ideas behind it. Firstly it says in Philippians Ch 4v6-7 that we are ‘not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ This is a peace that comes through trusting God with our lives as we talk to Him about them. This is possible through Jesus – the Prince of Peace.

Secondly, when we entrust our lives to Jesus, experiencing His forgiveness and the new life only he can give, he puts us in a right relationship with God as we come to know him as our father. Now instead of resisting His love for us we are at peace with Him. In Romans Ch 5 v1 it says that we now ‘have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’.

Thirdly, as we now seek to live in God’s world in the way he would have us live and we try to put into practice this new way of life it says in Philippians Ch 4 v9 that ‘the God of peace will be with you’.

What a fantastic thing – that we can be at peace with God, know and experience the kind of peace that only he can give and then, even more incredibly, get to know the God who is peace through Jesus. I pray and trust that you will have a truly peaceful Christmas. See you in the New Year!