Sometimes, when I look at other people’s lives, I think, “Wow, they must have a lot of certainty, and thus peace, because their situation seems so stable.”
But this week, one of the most “predictable” situations I’ve known just unraveled. No big explosion. No betrayal. Just a slow destabilization. Circumstances shifted. People changed. And now others around them will feel the ripple effects.
Two other friends had major changes this week, too—reminders that our lives are far more uncertain than they appear.
We live on the edge of global instability. Uncertainty is everywhere.
And I like certainty. I like to plan and prepare so everything turns out the way I imagined. It’s probably because anxiety swells where certainty recedes.
But no amount of planning or preparing can give me peace in a world that is broken and unpredictable. I can control some inputs, but I can’t guarantee the outcomes. None of us can.
If I base my peace on how well life is going or how much control I feel, I’ll never actually have peace.
I need a peace that doesn’t dissipate at the slightest change.
Where Does Peace Come From?
I have to keep re-learning that peace doesn’t come from:
- how much money I have in the bank
- my ability to control a situation
- how predictable my life is
- if things are all going well
- how organized I am
- my circumstances
Those things might bring temporary calm. But they can’t give lasting peace because they’re all subject to change. And anything that can change can’t provide predictable peace.
Real peace has to come from something, or Someone, unchanging.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn’t change. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17), even when we don’t understand what he’s doing.
He is the prince of peace who gives us his very own peace
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. —John 14:27
He offers us “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” that “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
This is the peace our hearts desperately need in uncertain times. This is the peace the world longs for. This is the peace that was shattered in Eden when a couple people listened the Peace Stealer instead of the Peace Giver.
How Can We Get This Peace?
We don’t manufacture it. We can’t earn it. We can’t demand it.
We have to receive it.
Peace is a person, and his name is Jesus.
If you follow Jesus, you receive his peace by trusting him and his will, even when you wouldn’t have picked it. You say:
“Not my will, but yours be done. I don’t understand this, but I trust you. You are with me, and you give me your peace.”
It’s a daily surrender: letting go of our illusion of control and clinging to his unchanging promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
If you aren’t following Jesus, you’re untethered from the only solid, stable, peace-guaranteeing person in the universe.
He is ready and willing to offer you his peace, if you’ll receive it by faith.
No planner, no spreadsheet, no emergency fund can give you the kind of peace that Jesus offers.
So when the storm swirls around you, we say to him:
“Anchor me in you. Be my peace. Be my certainty in the midst of chaos and let your will be done.”
We receive his peace when we finally let go of control and trust it all to him.