His Name Shall Be CalledSample

PRINCE OF PEACE

It has been nearly 2000 years since the arrival of Christ and it is plain to see how Jesus is the perfect embodiment of wisdom, strength, and love. We also know that Jesus fulfilled His mission to reconcile us to the Father and to one another through His death on the cross.

I believe in some ways our vantage point has caused us to lose the awe and wonder associated with the names Isaiah pronounced.

Just imagine hearing these words for the first time, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

It would have felt too good to be true, perhaps even mind-bending to imagine someone so great would come to their rescue, deliver them from their enemies, restore them to their land, and cause them to flourish once again.

However, it would still be over 700 years before He would come, and some of those in captivity would never see their rescue, nor many generations to follow. So how was this good news?

Though God cared deeply about their distress and wanted to save them from their situation, He was more concerned about an even greater need, the need to cure their sin-sick hearts and ultimately bring them lasting salvation. He wanted to restore the Shalom (peace, wholeness, justice, goodness) and order established at the foundation of the earth.

This is also good news for us today.

The world is moving at a frenetic pace, we live hurried, anxious, disconnected, fragmented, and restless lives.

The opposite of peace is restlessness. And restlessness is often the result of the absence of God's presence.

Though we face real enemies and threats in our world, the greater threat comes from within. Our hearts have searched for peace in worldly pleasures, like money, possessions, success, fame, education, beauty, food, travel, career, dreams, children, and spouses. Though many of these things are good, blessings even, they will never grant us the enduring peace we crave. No wonder Jesus says, His peace is unlike that found in the world.

His peace is not something we have to earn, strive after, or create. His peace is available to us in the Person of Jesus. While we were enemies of God Jesus came to destroy the wall of hostility that kept us from God and from others.

Jesus gave all that He was so we could have all we could ever need in Him.

There is a profound sense of freedom knowing that we are not working for peace, but we are working from a place of peace and rest found only in Him.

If He is our peace, then we have all we need within us to become a people of Shalom. This mandate didn’t disappear under the New Covenant, we have always been called to be ministers of reconciliation so that the world would know and experience the Prince of Peace.

Prayer

Thank you, Jesus, that you are the Prince of Peace. I pray that my restless heart will continue to trust in you and find rest today and always. Help me be an extension of your peace to others, so they can know you. Amen.