“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
– Psalm 46:10
Peace on Earth really is the will of God! This verse (which we’re used to thinking of in a personal sense) is a command and promise to all nations. The command is to “Be still” – stop fighting. God’s will is for the nations to choose peace rather than attacking one another which prevents many from knowing and worshiping God. The promise is that the endless bloody wars with which we’re much too familiar will end one day when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns.
God’s plan from the earliest pages of the Bible is to redeem for Himself a people not just from a single ethnicity or handful of preferred nations, but people from EVERY ethnicity, nation, and culture. Hundreds of nations. Thousands of ethnic people groups. God is God of all the Earth. Every person was lovingly made in His image. One day He will be worshiped in heaven by people from all over the Earth (see Revelation 7). Until then, the task of His people is to spread the good news that God is real, that God loves us, and that He graciously sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross and rise from death to set us free from sin and death.
This is why it’s imperative that Christians be intentional peacemakers, not conflict creators. We must be known for our devotion to peace rather than for the bloody religious wars that have stained the reputation of Jesus over the centuries. We must repent of those and renounce them as the way of Satan, not Jesus. War tarnishes the image of God and distracts people from Him. That’s why the devil loves violence, war, and conflict. As Christians, we should trust in God’s promise of peace on earth but we must also diligently pray and work for peace in the name of Jesus – in our homes, our communities, our schools and workplaces, our nation, and our world.