Philippians 4:7 (KJV) says, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I used to think that peace meant passivity…doing nothing besides praying to God for Him to do everything in my life. For if he was so great and mighty, then if he wanted something miraculous, or even something good to happen, it was His job alone to make it happen.

How can peace be active in a world that we are not made to be in? So that by partaking in any activities of this world, how can we be at peace?

Looking at scripture, Jesus, being One in God with the Father, is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Yet, this Prince of Peace actively set out to help others and change the world for good. He ate with sinners. A Jewish Rabbi dining with sinners. Do you realize how unconventional that was for His time?! Let me just share that it didn’t happen. Therefore, He went against the current flow of societal norms, actively choosing to dine with sinners.

“And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him (KJV).” Not only a few…but many! If you have a choice to eat with people that are similar to you, or at least upholding citizens, as compared to people that are seen as ‘less’, what would you choose? Well, this first means we’d have to get out of our homes and seek out people to eat with, but that’s another conversation entirely.

Jesus went against societal norms while at peace. Being rooted in God and knowing who we are in Him helps defend against imposter syndrome or any adverse feelings of being different from others when going against the norm. “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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 KJV).

We are loved by God and that is our identity.

I used to feel like doing anything, active instead of passive, was sin. Yet, I realized that if I am doing the Will of God as a born again Christian, then being active is good. I am not saying that we have to be active to go to heaven. Christ dying on the cross covers our sin, and simply believing in God is all we must do to be with Him one day in heaven. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

For what purpose are my actions? Are they for growing the kingdom of God or of this world, which belongs to another?

Now, there are a couple of truths to acknowledge. God is love (1 John 4:8), God of peace (Romans 15:33 NIV), and if a person is born again, then they possess the same powers given by God to Jesus, thus they can also act as Jesus did while here on earth by spreading that peace through action (John 14:12 NIV). Born-again believers share in Christ’s authority and power through the Holy Spirit…this message is so so powerful!! Praise God!

There is a lot more to this message, like what ‘actions’ we, as Christians, can do through the power of God’s peace, but I will pause here for now.

“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 NIV).

Go in peace and walk in the ways of Jesus.

With Love,

Alexandra