Peace: Wanted, but never gained

Peace: how we strive for it.

I saw a friend's picture of a peace symbol spray painted on a roadblock. Her subtitle for it was "if only it were that simple" or something to that effect. That got me thinking, and we all know how dangerous that can be.

I love peace. I think God wants us to love peace. This is evident when He tells us "Blessed are the peacemakers" in Matthew 5. But will we ever gain peace?

Jesus tells us that evidence of the Second Coming of Christ is "wars and rumors of war". He tells us that he did not come to bring peace to the world "but to bring a sword". In the latter reference I don't think He meant a literal sword, but that by the simply fact of believing in Him there will be conflict between us and the world. And there should be conflict. But I'm getting off track here.

My point is this: Until Jesus returns and takes away His Church (not a literal building, but Christians, whom He calls the Church) there will be violence. How I wish it weren't so, but thats the truth.

I'm not saying we don't need to strive for peace. Like I said earlier, God wants us to be peaceful with our neighbor. But not everyone believes in Him. Heck, even after Jesus reigns over earth for 1000 years there will still be people who won't believe He is the Savior of the world.

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here to be honest. I guess I'm saying to not be surprised when world peace is never achieved. But I can tell you this with absolute certainty: the turmoil inside your own life, God can give you peace.

That is all.