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In perfect peace

 

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You, 
Because he trusts in You."
Isaiah 26:3

When someone dies, we comfort ourselves by saying, "may their soul rest in perfect peace" We assume that death or exit from this life promises perfect peace, signaling a general consensus that everyone faces troubles in this life, regardless of privilege or age. Even when people's lives look all rosy from outside, the truth is, we may not know the battles they face in secret. Individuals, relationships, families, marriages, and communities of peoples all go through different upheavals. It is part of life.

As established in a previous blog, peace is not the absence of trouble but rather a way of being. Peace is a consciousness rather than an event. Better yet, there is a promise of perfect peace for this lifetime. That is, we don't have to be dead and buried before enjoying perfect peace. I could make bold to say that how we embody peace in this lifetime is a precursor to eternal peace. How so? The prophet Isaiah seems to focus on a theme of God's judgment and the establishment of His Kingdom between chapters 24 and 27 of his writings/prophecies. That is, the Kingdom of God is an establishment of peace. Apostle Paul expands on this in Romans 14:17 when he says," For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." And if we are tempted to think that the Kingdom of God is in a different dispensation, Jesus Himself corrected that viewpoint when He announced in Luke 17:21 that the Kingdom of God is within us, "nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."

Jesus is the announcer of God's Kingdom and the Prince of Peace. In Him and through Him, we have perfect peace


 

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