Price of Peace

There are country level conflicts going on in different parts of the world. There are nations that are “war torn” because they are fighting for a cause that they believe in. There are many men, women and children willing to die for their cause. Their cause often costs them everything. I feel really blessed to live in a place of peace – relatively speaking. The battles that our nation faces from a military perspective are in another country. There are cultural battles that we are facing here at home on many fronts. Peace is sometimes illusive.

I just read yesterday about how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news across the mountain. I realized that when there are mountains, then there are valleys that lead to the mountaintop. The Lord paid the price of peace that is the good news. Check this out…

1 Who has believed our message

    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

    and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,

    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

    each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:1-6 NIV)

 

There are many men and women who have defended the freedoms we enjoy and they have fought many battles to protect our country and way of life from those who want to destroy us. The price of peace is really expensive. The Prince of Peace gave His life for peace. I really should not take it for granted. I should live each day with a grateful heart. All my sin was place on Him and He took it to the cross. Without His birth we wouldn’t have had the peace He brings.

“Peace on earth – good will to men” cost God His One and Only Son. I’m so thankful for the “peace that passes all understanding”.

Pressing On!

Dwayne