Inner Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27

One thing every person on this planet longs for is peace. I am not talking about "world peace," whatever that looks like. I am talking about peace in their lives or what many would describe as "inner peace." Yet, how do most people go about finding this peace? They go about it through trying to maximize the pleasure in their lives and minimizing the pain. We believe that if we win the lottery, become famous, find the right job, marry the right spouse, live in the best neighborhoods, purchase the best home, get in shape, break a bad habit, start a good habit, set goals, achieve goals, eat the best foods, get the right education, know the right people, save the animals, save the planet and so on, it will all somehow lead to inner peace. But, it doesn't. Actor Jim Carrey summed it up this way, "I hope everybody could be rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of, so they will know that it's not the answer." While most of us won't be rich and famous like Jim Carrey, what does our pursuit of getting everything we ever dreamed of often leave us with? In many cases it is six and seven figure debt that leads us to, or on the brink of, financial ruin, poor health, divorce, broken homes, broken families, strained relationships, addictions we cannot support or break, wasted time spent pursuing all of this stuff, endless worrying about if we can keep it all together and much more personal destruction. And even for those who don't experience any of this, they still have the warning of Jim Carrey; "it's not the answer." The reason people pursue all these things in life is because they are trying to meet the deepest desires of their heart for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life from the world and not through a relationship with their God. Even the turmoil we see in the world with civil unrest, financial chaos, wars, terrorism, poverty, corruption, crime and all sorts of other dysfunction, has its roots in the same pursuit to fill the emptiness all of us are born with. And that is just the way God planned it.

The desires of the human heart for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life were put their by God because He is the only one that can meet those desires through a relationship with Jesus Christ. In Genesis 2:7, it says, "Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." The breath of life is the Holy Spirit of God. The life of man is the breath of God. However, because of sin, God removed His life from us and we died; physically alive to the world, but spiritually dead to God. It is that spiritual death, the longing in our hearts for those desires to be met, that propels us to seek them through any and all means the world offers. And because the world cannot provide the answer, we have no peace in our hearts. But, Jesus Christ said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die (John 11:25)." Yes, being God in the flesh, Jesus can offer you God's life, the breath of life breathed into Adam at creation, and resurrect you from your spiritual death. Even better is the fact that, although we will all physically die one day, for those that put a saving faith in Him, Jesus Christ will raise all from the dead physically one day to be with Him in heaven for eternity. Those desires in your heart are met because through faith in Jesus you have unconditional love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8), total acceptance (Romans 15:7), meaning and purpose to life (Ephesians 2:10). And when God is meeting the desires of our heart, we have peace because we have peace with Him; "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)." That answer that Jim Carrey didn't find through fame and fortune can only be found through accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.