Peace

by Scott Will

Currently at my church, we are in the process of studying the fruit of the Spirit. In case you are not familiar with it, the fruit of the Spirit includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.

This past week in church, we discussed peace. Our pastor made a very real and profound statement: he said that peace will not come into this world until Armageddon. (Armageddon is the setting of the epic battle between God and Satan that will take place on this earth at the second coming of Christ.) Peace is something that so many nations and individuals have tried to accomplish through documents and handshakes. At one time, America had to search for peace within the borders of our own nation at the conclusion of the Civil War.

The Civil War saw more Americans die in battle than any other war in which America has been involved. This war dug into the deepest roots of freedom and equality. One man stood at the forefront of this war with the responsibility of trying to prevent, end, and eventually mend the wounds of a nation divided. At the darkest, harshest of times during this war, Abraham Lincoln recognized that man could not end this war, but that the sheer will of God could finish the bloodshed. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln directly portrays those feelings to the American people: 

"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."  

Even in the midst of a tumultuous period, Lincoln seemed to find the internal peace that comes from knowing God. He did not look at a piece of paper to end a war. A handshake would not suffice. He knew that God alone was in control. He immersed himself into God's Word and tried to share the peace that He had found with the hearts of hurting people. He recognized that a life of devotion to God brings peace, while a life of rejecting Him leads to all kinds of disorder. 

I am grateful that many leaders in our nation’s history have chosen to revere God and obey His Word. They recognized that solutions would not come from their abilities alone, but through God’s working. Unfortunately, we have also had leaders who quote God, yet lead in a way that is not Christ-like. Whether a leader or not, we all are faced with a choice of how we will live. We can choose to reject God or to accept Him. We can make the first choice and live a life of turmoil, or we can choose the latter and live a life of internal peace in the midst of hardships.