Peace With God

So many people live with a gnawing sense of uneasiness, an agitation of the soul, a subconscious (or sometimes a conscious) awareness that there is just NO true peace in their life. We are masters at trying to medicate this emptiness and uneasiness. Humans turn to alcohol, cigarettes, or other addictive drugs. We try to find peace through the pursuit of pleasure--entertainment, sensuality, thrill-seeking, adventure, exotic vacations and other hedonistic activities. Some believe that money, possessions, having the right "toys" and wearing the "right" clothes will "do the trick." Many find causes that they can pour their energies into--politics, social justice, preserving the environment, etc.,. But all of these efforts--most of them detrimental, but certainly not all--miss the mark, they fail to get to the root of the problem in our soul. As fallen creatures we are sinful by nature and in practice and that means we are automatically objects of God's wrath. There can be no peace, no purpose, no fulfillment, no true contentment as long as the enmity exists between us and God. The difficult thing for us to realize is that there is NOTHING we can do to solve the problem. No amount of good works, medicating through pleasure, pursuing power and/or influence will set things right between us and God and thereby fill the God-sized vacuum in our soul. The glorious thing is that a Holy God made it possible for the animosity between Him and His fallen/sinful creatures to be eliminated. Oh, it was not an easy or free solution. For God's wrath against sin must necessarily be punished or else God is not a God of justice. Paul tells us the path to peace in Romans 5:1. "Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." True peace--the absence of conflict between us and God--is available only through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you know that peace. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.