Peace is a good thing.  All of us want to have peace inside—peace in our heart and peace of mind.  Peace feels good.  And the peace that comes from God is the ultimate—and really the only— true peace.  But it will help us to understand that peace from God is really peace with God.  We read in Romans 5:1 that since we are justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  And what we will see is that when we are at peace with God we will have the peace of God inside.  If we are at peace with God then that means we are not at war with Him.  It means we are in a good relationship or in right-standing with Him.  Another word for right-standing is ‘righteous’.

Like it says in this verse in Romans, we are justified, or made righteous, by faith.  We know the only way to be righteous is to receive God’s provision for righteousness, which is to receive cleansing from the blood of Jesus, by faith.  If peace were a river then the blood of Jesus is like the head of that river.  We’ve got to be cleansed in His blood first in order for the peace of God to flood through us.

Jesus said not to let our hearts be troubled (John 14:27).  He said He left His peace with us.  But His peace is not peace like the world gives.  For in the world we have trouble, but in Him we have peace.  What that means is that true peace does not come from not having any trouble or any problems.  We think we would have peace if we just had this bill paid, or a new job, or a new spouse, or this big problem solved.  But that’s not real peace.  Real peace does not change with the tide and flow of circumstances.  Real peace is steady and constant, regardless of the circumstances.  The world thinks peace is when all our circumstances are going well.  But true peace comes from righteousness, (peace with God), and is not dependent upon our circumstances at all.  We need to realize that the value of having peace with God is far greater than anything else that is troubling us.

When we are anxious about troubles we need to value His peace greater than the ‘peace’ that would come from having our problems solved.  The ‘peace’ that comes from having our problem solved is only temporary anyway.  When the next problem arises then we’ll lose our ‘peace’ again.  This is what I call ‘yo-yo living’ and it’s not fun.  You feel like you’re at the mercy of circumstances beyond your control and your life is an emotional roller coaster.  That’s the only kind of ‘peace’ the world has to offer.  God’s peace is much better!

Of course, sometimes we need wisdom.  We need to know what to do in certain situations.  But wisdom doesn’t come in response to anxiety or fear. Wisdom comes as a result of peace.  James 3:17 tells us that the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.  We have a tendency to want to know what to do so we can have peace.  We’re looking for peace to come from wisdom, but it’s the other way around.  Wisdom springs from the peace already in us from the righteousness that’s in us through Jesus.  It’s the peaceable fruit of righteousness that brings wisdom.  Wisdom doesn’t come in response to the troubles or the anxiety our troubles bring.  Wisdom comes from the peace within.

The world thinks it has wisdom and peace when all is going well in their circumstances.  But all it has is pride that comes from experience.  When things go well they pat themselves on the back saying they’ve made the right choices.  They’re doing everything right.  They think that peace and prosperity comes from their ability or skill in making the right choices.  But that is not true, lasting peace.  Again, we need to value the peace that comes from righteousness over the peace that comes from circumstances going how we want them to.  Our circumstances are not necessarily a reflection of whether or not all is well between God and us.  We need to know that!

Peace comes from a consciousness of righteousness.  Which means we are aware of the fact that Jesus has made it so we can be at peace with God.  We are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).  All is well between us and the Father.  And we can choose to value the peace we have with God over and above the ‘peace’ that would come from our problem being solved.

This problem may be what is on my mind.  But it’s not what is on God’s mind.  God’s not worried.  When our mind is on what His mind is on then we’ll have peace.  The Bible tells us we’ll have perfect peace when our mind is fixed on Jesus (Isaiah 26:3).  That doesn’t mean we just keep a picture of Jesus in our mind all day long.  It means that we are keeping our mind on the fact that Jesus is our righteousness.  Peace comes from the consciousness of righteousness.  We’re not rejecting His righteousness.  We’re not feeling guilty.  We’re not trying to earn something.  All is well between God and I.  And in the forefront of our mind we are conscious of this fact that all is well.  That’s peace—knowing that all is well.

The Bible tells us that we can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in the time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  This doesn’t mean that we have to get to the throne in order to talk God into giving grace in our situation.  The grace and mercy of God is continually flowing out from His throne in the river of life.  It means that we have to just get to His throne to receive it.  And the only way to get there is to come on the basis of our righteousness in Christ.  We don’t come on the basis of our own merit or good works.  We don’t come because we have punished ourselves with guilt long enough.  On the contrary, we have recognized guilt as pride and renounced it.  We have admitted that God is greater than we are and that in His plan of salvation the blood of Jesus Christ is more than enough to wipe sin out of our life.

Guilt will keep us from peace.  We often think of guilt as a humble thing that shows we are well aware of our sin, faults and shortcomings.  But guilt is really pride.  When you allow yourself to feel guilty you’re saying that the blood of Jesus isn’t enough to cleanse you of your sin.  You are rejecting God’s provision of righteousness.  When we come to this realization we need to repent and acknowledge that God is greater than us.  He created us and the blood of Jesus is more than enough to bring us back to that place of peace—back to righteousness.  Of course when we’ve sinned, our conscience will let us know and we repent.  But when we continue to hang on to guilt and don’t allow ourselves to receive God’s forgiveness then we’re rejecting God’s provision of righteousness, which is pride.  His blood is enough to cleanse us, His Spirit fills us and the river of life flooding through us keeps the flow of all that comes from God fresh and alive.

Mercy and grace is always flowing from the throne.  But it’s up to us to receive His provision for righteousness and come to the throne to receive it.  We have got to come into His presence and receive His righteousness on His terms.  His righteousness means we have peace with Him and from that peace will come the wisdom for us to know how to live.  We don’t go to Him asking for wisdom so we can solve our problem and then have peace.  He’s trying to get us to see that His peace is here all along.  He doesn’t want us to make decisions based on the fear and anxiety that our problem is causing.  He wants us to make decisions based on the wisdom springing from His peace.  The wisdom that comes from the consciousness of righteousness.  Decisions made from anxiety and fear, anger or vindictiveness will never produce the fruit of peace.

It’s interesting that the words ‘peaceable’ in both James 3:17 (the wisdom from above is…peaceable) and in Hebrews 12:11 (the peaceable fruit of righteousness) both mean ‘pacific’ which means to put an end to conflict.  If we want an end to the conflict in our circumstances it will come through an end to the conflict between God and us.  This means that the first thing we should not do when trouble arises is get mad at God or blame Him for it.  We want to keep peace between Him and us.  He is the One who promises our deliverance in times of trouble (Psalm 91).  And the last thing we want to do is to enter into any amount of conflict with Him.  Instead, we can declare that He is our help and refuge in time of trouble.

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