The Fruit of Peace

Inner peace

When we think of inner peace, we may think of rest, self-love, confidence in ourselves, a lack of caring what other people think of us. According to the Bible, none of these things are peace.

Instead, peace is resting in the security of God, knowing you are whole in Him and He is guiding your steps. It’s trusting His ways are good, and that despite what you may go through, He's in control. It’s accepting and understanding that where you are today is part of His plan to bring glory to His name and shape you to be more like Him.

Elisabeth Elliot, a Christian missionary, author, and speaker, says it this way: “We can rest assured that the situation in which we find ourselves (and nowhere else) is the very place where God wants to meet us. It is here that we will grow into the likeness of Christ. So this means that suffering itself is not meaningless, it is not ‘for nothing.’ It is an element of God’s loving purpose.”

This “suffering” might be a toddler sprawled on the grocery store floor throwing a tantrum. It might be a medical situation, financial stress, or a car’s check engine light. It might be the coworker testing your patience or someone at church pushing your buttons. In a broken world, there’s no lack of situations attempting to rob us of peace.

Peace be with you

How do we develop this peace in our own lives? Elisabeth Elliot, in her book Be Still My Soul, lays out several next steps:

1. Choose your attitude. Will you approach this situation remembering God’s faithfulness to you? Will you trust him? Will you rest in His control of the situation?
2. Choose to offer your pain to God. Whatever your pain is, you don’t have to carry it on your own. We have a heavenly Father eager to carry our burdens.
3. Choose to receive what God has given with open hands. Many times, we can’t control the thing robbing us of our peace. It simply ‘is what it is.’ Accept it and ask God to move in ways you can’t.
4. Choose to renew your commitment to Him. Despite our emotions, our situations, our frustrations, or our struggles, we serve a God who is good. Wherever you are, remind yourself Who you follow and what He has done for you.
5. Choose to praise Him as Habakkuk did. Though Israel was in famine, Habakkuk praised the Lord. God was faithful to Israel in the past, and Habakkuk knew He would be faithful in the future, despite what present circumstances looked like.
6. Choose to do the next thing. We may lose our peace because we don’t have control over a situation or we can’t do something the way we planned. However, just because our plan differs from God’s doesn’t mean we can’t experience peace or move forward. God is sovereign–you
   don’t have to fix everything on your own. Just do the next thing.

If peace feels a lot like a choice, it’s because it is. Jesus knows that we’ll have trials and tribulations in this world. However, He promises us in John 16:33 (ESV), “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Peace is found by willfully accepting God’s promises, resting in His faithfulness, following His footsteps, and trusting the Holy Spirit to provide peace in places where you cannot. He has overcome the world—and in this knowledge, we find peace.