The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Galatians 5:22-23

One of my favorite parts of summer is sitting at home reading, or doing anything, and it is quiet. I typically do not have music playing or a TV on. My students do not understand how I ride in my truck with the radio off. I like the peace and quiet. However, there are times when we can be in a quiet place, but peace is nowhere to be found. Our minds race with all of our cares and concerns. We think that if we could just go on vacation we could have peace. Most of us have probably been on vacations that were anything but peaceful. So, how do we get peace?

---

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

---

The root of the Greek word translated to peace means "to join" (eiro). Peace comes when we are joined with Christ. I do not mean joined in salvation, but rather when we are spiritually walking with Him. It requires an intimacy in our relationship, a closeness. It is this closeness that allows a person to be calm in the chaos.

As a pastor, I have been at the bedside of many people as they have taken their last breath. Sometimes these people are unconscious, and you have to wonder if there is any awareness of what is going on. Other times, the person is very much aware that their time is drawing to an end, and they are talking right up to the last few hours of their life. My grandmother Ray was like this. She could not eat for days, and yet she was at peace. She was probably more at peace than anyone else in the room. She was prepared to see Jesus.

She was sitting on the side of her hospital bed one day, and I was sitting there by her. Even drinking water had become a chore, and I said to her, "It must be difficult not being able to do something that you have literally done your entire life." She told me, "I'm just thankful to have been able to do it for as long as I could". She had a peace that I did not understand, but I wanted to. Instead of me being compassionate and comforting her, she was sharing her peace in Jesus with me.

There is no secret. The closer we walk with Jesus, the more we focus our eyes on Him, the less we see the chaos around us. Death is not something to dread, but simply a door to pass through. Sickness is not something to stress over, but rather something that is sanctifying us. Poverty is not something that prevents fulfillment, but rather a pathway to depending more on God. When we fix our eyes on Christ, we will truly understand what Paul said in Romans 8:37-39. Then we will know peace.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Father, often times when life gets crazy, we look at our circumstances. Like Peter, we see the waves crashing and the wind howling, and rather than fix our eyes on You, we look at the situation. Then, we find ourselves sinking, or maybe even under water. Teach us to look ahead, straight at You. Help us to learn the peace that You want us to have.