Our Prince of Peace Shall Reign

August 29

“Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pay unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall you have peace,” Jeremiah 29:7.

Charles Spurgeon eloquently promotes the truth of the above verse of scripture when he expounds upon the necessity that we should pray for our countries, specifically for peace and unity. He says:

"The principle involved in this text would suggest to all of us who are the Lord’s “strangers and foreigners” II Chronicles 29:15, II Peter 2:11, that we should be desirous to promote the peace and prosperity of the people among whom we dwell.

Specifically, our nation and our city should be blessed by our constant intercession. An earnest prayer for your country and other countries is well becoming in the mouth of every believer.

Eagerly let us pray for the great boon of peace, both at home and abroad. If strife should cause bloodshed in our streets, or if foreign battle should slay our brave soldiers, we should all bewail the calamity.

Let us therefore pray for peace and diligently promote those principles by which the people at home and abroad may be bound together in bonds of amity."

Besides Spurgeon’s prayer for peace, we have the wonderful petition of St. Francis of Assisi who prayed:

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen."

Our world seems to be in an ever-widening swath of hatred and terrorism. It would be easy to succumb to the madness of the day by allowing fear to swallow our hope, by allowing despair to engulf our faith.

But if we will keep our focus on Jesus, the Prince of Peace; if we will continue to trust Him no matter how violent the world becomes; if we will continue to pray for peace, we can be confidently assured that, “The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:7, even as His Word assures that it will.

And we may know that one day, the Christ in whom we trust will “…come again in like manner as He has gone into heaven,” Acts 1:11. And on that glorious day, all hatred shall cease, all war shall end, all men who look for His coming shall “know even as we are known,” I Corinthians 13:12, and our glorious Savior, our Prince of Peace, shall reign forever.