Some quotes and pictures to direct our hearts towards peace.

Peace isn’t always what we think it is. God’s peace passes understanding because it doesn’t require the circumstances that we believe must attend peace. Our understanding is also based on what is comfortable for us. God’s peace can surpass all others because it has a force and power within itself- it isn’t passive peace, but active peace. Look to the Prince of Peace to reign in your heart today. When something spills your milk or upsets your applecart… turn your eyes to Jesus, seek His rulership over the emotions and the circumstances. How can I learn from this? Stretch me Lord, give greater flexibility to my life, give me wisdom if others will not dwell in peace with me. To know and understand the rule of the Prince of Peace is as important as extension of ourselves. Peace is not always giving in, sometimes peace is standing firm in the way that will lead to true peace.

I invite you to share your own favorite quotes in the comments section.

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I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday – the longer, the better – from the great boarding school where we are forever working at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest.~Charles Dickens

I’ll go inside and read Christmas chapter from the old book … Without dispute God has now his glory in heavens, there is peace on Earth and I feel no ill will towards anybody.

~ F. E. Sillanpää, Finnish writer

Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today’s Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday.

~Gladys Tabor (Still Cove Journal)

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In our Advent devotion that began this week of the candle of Peace we remembered that peculiar story of World War I soldiers, maybe you have heard it? The Christmas truce:

The Christmas truce of 1914 really happened. It is as much a part of the historical texture of World War I as the gas clouds of Ypres or the Battle of the Somme or the Armistice of 1918. Yet it has often been dismissed as though it were merely a myth. Or, assuming anything of the kind occurred, it has been seen as a minor incident, blown up out of all proportion, natural fodder for sentimentalists and pacifists of later generations.

But the truce did take place, and on some far greater scale than has been generally realised. Enemy really did meet enemy between the trenches. There was for a time, genuine peace in No Man’s Land. Though Germans and British were the main participants, French and Belgians took part as well. Most of those involved agreed it was a remarkable way to spend Christmas. “Just you think,” wrote one British soldier, “that while you were eating your turkey, etc, I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before! It was astounding!” -special report by the BBC

Evidence in history that only Jesus Christ can give a peace that is more powerful than all the hatreds and disputes of man. The gospel is really that powerful in those who are exposed to its message. There are many ways to apply the scripture, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”, but at Christmas we see the brave, the adventurous, and the believing put into action the Christmas words: “Peace to men of good will.” Glad tidings! Good news!

Don’t be weary in well doing- preach the gospel of peace.