Life Without Peace

Scripture Reading: Job 1-3

Today's Treasure: "The way of peace they do not know" (Isaiah 59:8).

If you could bottle and sell peace, tranquility, or serenity, your wealth would be assured. If, however, you have peace, wealth doesn't really matter. Everybody needs it. Very few seem to have it.

The Bible tells of a man named Job who was "blameless and upright; He feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1). The Lord had blessed the work of his hands so that he had an abundance of livestock and servants. In order to demonstrate Job's faithfulness to his Lord, God allowed Satan to take away everything he had and to physically harm his body, as long as he did not take his life. In one day Job lost his livestock, his servants and his children. Soon after that Job was tested with painful sores all over his body. Verse 22 says, "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."

Surely God gave us Job so that in the midst of our own misery, we would always remember a man who experienced worse...and made it. He lost his livelihood, his servants, his children, and his health. After days of sitting in silence, Job spoke "out of the overflow of the heart" (Matt. 12:34) and wished aloud that he was dead. Why was he overtaken by such despair? Because buried deeply in the midst of all Job had lost was his greatest loss of all: his peace. Life is unbearable without peace.

I am not a psychologist or a specialist, but for years I have believed that people more often take their lives from a lack of peace than they do from a lack of love or happiness. While studying peace I found what appears to be biblical support for such a belief. Psalm 37:7 says, "There is a future for a man of peace." Proverbs 14:30 says, "A heart of peace gives life to the body."

Job 3:26 describes what a life is like without peace: "I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." The word turmoil means "commotion, restlessness, excitement, rage."* The same word is used of "the raging thunder" in Job 37:2. A lack of peace manifests itself in many ways: a sleepless night filled with tossing and turning, fear that lodges itself like a pine cone in your stomach, a mind and body in perpetual motion, memories that imprison you repeatedly, unending strife, hopelessness, and the general, yet horrible, sense of being out of control.

Peace is often that "something" dissatisfied people ultimately discover they are missing. Sadder still, others never can quite put their fingers on it, living and dying in absolute turmoil. Recently I heard an interviewer ask an Academy Award winning actor who "has it all" what he still wants to achieve. His answer? "Peace of mind."

Where does one find peace? Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, a byproduct of our lives being filled and controlled by the Holy One. God wants to freely give and manifest in you this treasure that no man or woman could buy. What a gift! If you encounter someone searching for this peace you have, be sure and tell them who gave it to you.   

Lord, how I've longed for Your peace. You've been so faithful to grant it to me. Thank You so much for settling my soul with this gift. I pray that others would notice Your peace within me and that I would be faithful to tell them that it comes from You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

*Spiros Zodhiates et al., eds., The Complete Word Study Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1994), 2364.

Adapted from Living Beyond Yourself, by Beth Moore, pages 88-91. Nashville: LifeWay Press, 1998. Used by permission.