When God first created man, there was peace in the Garden of Eden. Then man sinned, and there was no longer any peace. But God loved us so much that He sent His only Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly. With that abundant life comes the blessing of peace.

We cannot have peace without knowing Jesus, the Prince of Peace, as our Lord and Savior. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST." God has made provision for us to have peace.

JOHN 14:27

27 Peace I [Jesus] leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

When we accept the peace Jesus offers, we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be troubled. We can have true and lasting peace—even in troubled times! But in order to have such peace, we must know the One who gives peace. Unfortunately, many people who know Christ as their Savior do not know Him as their Peace-Giver. But He is not only our Savior; He is also our giver of peace.

What is peace? One dictionary defines it this way: a state of tranquility or quiet; freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions. The Hebrew word "shalom" carries the meaning of wholeness, harmony, well, happy, friendly, health, something complete and sound, and prosperity. This infers the idea of soundness of health—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

We know from God's Word that God has provided health for us. But so many times, we take that promise only to mean spiritual or physical health. But God has also promised us emotional and mental health. We can be healed and made healthy and whole in every area of our life.

It's sad that more and more people, even Christians, are turning to anti-depressants and other drugs to give them a sense of peace. For some people, even for children, these drugs seem to be the answer to all of life's problems. The use of prescription drugs is so commonplace that for children who need peace, often the first thing suggested is a prescription drug.

God can get you peacefully through the storms of life! God can help you in every situation, and you won't have to alter your body chemistry for Him to do it. In troubled times, God's Word can help you cope with everyday life without the aid of chemicals. Tranquilizers can give you only temporary peace! But God can give you permanent peace! And He doesn't just put a bandage on our problems, so to speak; He is the problem-solver.

I'm not teaching you something that I haven't practiced in my own life. In fact, I have to practice this on a daily basis. One passage of Scripture I rely upon daily is Isaiah 26:3 and 4.

ISAIAH 26:3,4

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Have you committed yourself to the Lord? Do you lean on Him daily? Every day when I wake up, I say, "God, I have to make decisions about such-and-such today. I don't have the answers, but You said in Your Word in James 1:5 that if anyone lacks wisdom, he can ask of You and You will give to him liberally. God, I don't know the answers, but I'm leaning on You. You are the reason I can have peace and confident assurance this day."

If you will lean on the Lord, He will give you the strength and wisdom and peace that you need and desire.

Isaiah 26:4 in The Amplified Bible says, "So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]." We can stand on the Rock. This Rock will never crumble; this Rock won't even shift or shake! The Rock, the Lord Jesus, never shakes! We have a solid foundation when we stand on that Rock.

The problem is, most of us try to live a peaceful and victorious life without keeping our mind on the Lord Jesus Christ. According to Isaiah 26:3, which says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee," we must keep our mind on Jesus if we want to live in peace.

Many times this is what happens: We have our mind stayed on Christ, and life starts to go pretty good for us. At first we shout, "Hallelujah, this is wonderful!" Then because life is going so good, we tend to forget about the Lord. We forget about keeping our mind on Him. And we start having more and more confidence in ourselves.

We can never have confidence in our abilities because in ourselves alone, we are nothing. It is only through Christ that we can accomplish all things—and that is because He strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).

When I am tempted to put other things ahead of God or when life seemingly begins to crumble under my feet, remembering the precious relationship I have with Jesus my Savior is what gets me through.

Just because we're Christians doesn't mean that everything in life will be easy. We're going to go through trials. We're going to walk through valleys sometimes. But we don't have to camp in those valleys. Because of Jesus and the peace that He gives, we can walk through them, knowing that our Lord is going to be with us every step of the way!

Lawrence O. Richards, Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 479; James Strong, The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), 116.