Prince of Peace

Source: Good News Magazine

No matter where you look today, peace seems to be in very short supply. Each day the headlines seem to tell of some new political crisis that threatens to plunge the whole world into chaos. Our courts overflow with people caught up in conflicts, and millions seek frantically for something – anything - that will give them peace of mind and heart in the midst of daily pressures.

We need to hear again those familiar words of the Christmas angels, spoken so many centuries ago to a small band of simple Jewish shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).

But are those words really true? Can God’s peace become a reality in our lives and in our world? Or was the promise of the angels just a hollow, empty hope, unrealistic for life as it really is? Peace is possible—possible not because men have discovered some new scheme or formula for instant peace, but because God’s Son has come into the world. It is possible because that same Son, who entered the world on that first Christmas, wants to enter our lives today “And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

The miracle of Christmas is that we can be at peace with God! We can come into a personal relationship with Him and be restored and renewed. We can be born again spiritually by the grace of God.

It has been almost 2,000 years since the angels hovered over the Judean countryside, declaring their Good News to the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Sadly, much of our world still knows very little of that peace.

But God’s peace is real, and it becomes a reality whenever men and women turn to Christ and follow Him as Lord. In the midst of the trials and difficulties of life we can know “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). And someday the Christ who came so humbly at Christmas will come again in glory to establish His kingdom. When He does, our world will finally know the peace of God in its fullest sense.