The Prince of Peace
A compilation
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“Glory to God in the highest! Peace on earth to men of good will. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”—Luke 2:14; Matthew 5:9
Although peace has been the goal of mankind for thousands of years—and the desire for peace is never so great as it is at Christmas—it seems that our ability to find or establish peace continues to elude us. True peace on every level—from international conflicts to our personal lives—has become more difficult than ever to achieve.
In the Bible, the word peace means much more than the absence of conflict. It carries with it the connotation of health and well-being. In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words, shalom (peace) and shalem (health or full), contained this concept of the word. Peace included inner (spiritual, emotional) peace, health, abundance, harmony with life on every level—even “in the midst of storm,” when life’s problems seem to snuff out any kind of peace.
In the New Testament, the Greek word eirene is used to describe peace over a hundred times. For example, the expression “go in peace” means “stay warm and eat well.”1 On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”2
As in the Old Testament, peace means much more than the mere “absence of conflict” in society. It means a very real inner sense of well-being that originates with God and is given as a precious commodity to each of us who receive Jesus, the “prince of peace” without whom there simply is no lasting peace! This means peace for each of us personally, both in our personal lives and in our relations with others. The peace of God which passes all understanding is very real and practical. There’s no need to wait for man’s fragile peace, which never lasts anyway.
Even though all around you is war and confusion, you can have peace in your own heart through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Even though there’s war and turmoil and confusion and chaos on the outside, at last you’ve gotten rid of it on the inside. And the Lord is able to keep you right in the middle of it all. So you don’t ever have to worry.
Jesus never sleeps. He watches all the time, along with all of His angels. He knows every hair of your head. Everything is in His hands. As the old hymn goes, “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the Rock [Jesus], that shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand.”
So the Lord’s able to keep you, no matter where you are. And if He decides He’d rather take you home to be with Him in heaven than take care of you on earth, then you’ve got it made, one way or the other. “For our lives are hid with Christ in God,”3 and “You shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”4
He is our peace. Our help comes from Him. In Him is our confidence. We must place our confidence in Him—the soundest base in the world.
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast.
There shall your heart be happy,
There will you find sweet rest!5
This Christmastime, Jesus is earnestly reaching out to every soul on earth, offering true peace, comfort, and eternal life and love. He offers the priceless gift of salvation to all who will accept Him. Jesus is God’s Christmas present to the world. Why not share the peace, comfort, and eternal life He offers with someone else this Christmas?
May we truly be the peacemakers He wants us to be this Christmas, spreading His message of love and hope.
Words of Christmas praise to Jesus
You are God and man, king and servant. You left Your throne of immortality and encased Yourself in human flesh. You became one of us, so that You could save us. Inexpressible joy comes to me when I think of how You quietly and humbly came into our world and changed it forever.
When You were born among us, You gave us the greatest gift of salvation, peace, hope, and love. Who could have imagined the transformation that would come through a little baby, born to commoners, wrapped in rags, sleeping in a feeding trough?
Thank You for what Christmas means—that whether or not I have family and friends, good times or bad, I will always have You. I will always have Your love—love that has stood the test of time, love that saved me and so many others like me. Thank You for making the choice to experience both the joys and sorrows of earth. Thank You for enduring the tears, pain, frustration, loneliness, exhaustion, and death so that You could truly say that You understand us. Never has there been a more perfect love than Yours.
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Christmas praises fill the air! Listen, wonderful Savior, as we lift our grateful hearts and voices in praise to You. We want to fill earth and heaven with the sound of our praises to You for the greatest Christmas gift ever given—Your life for ours, Your gift of eternal love and life with You forever. We want to fill the universe with the symphony of our praises. We want our praise to be music to Your ears, music that thrills Your heart.
Thank You for loving us so much that You were willing to become one of us and experience everything we experience, feel everything we feel, suffer everything we suffer, and live the life we live. Then You died for the world and took on our sins so we could have eternal life. What commitment! What humility! What love! What resurrection! What life!
Let the conductor’s baton rise! Let the angelic orchestra begin. Let the violins play, the trumpets sound, the drums thunder, the cymbals clash, the bells ring. Let the whole heavenly orchestra raise the roof of the universe with tremendous, majestic, musical praise to You, Jesus, our wonderful Savior and King.
Published by TFI in November 2001. Adapted and republished December 2014.
Read by Debra Lee.
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