Have you ever said one of these sayings about peace?

• Peace in the house.

• Peace out.

• I need peace and quiet.

• Peace be with you.

• Peace, love, and joy.

If you’ve read my writing or listened to me speak, I start by turning to the dictionary to get the definition of the focus word. This time it’s PEACE.

(There are many meanings for peace and my direction for this post is to keep it personal, so I will not be referring to war and peace definitions.)

Let’s get started.

Peace defined by Webster 1828 Dictionary:

• State of quiet
• Freedom from agitation
• Freedom from internal commotion
• Freedom from private quarrels, suits, disturbance
• Freedom from distraction by passions (fear, terror, anger, anxiety)
• Quietness of mind, tranquility, calmness, quiet conscious

By reading the definition do you gain peace, or does it agitate you with the realization that you need more peace?

Next, just because I’ve become a word nerd and like to know the number of times a word appears in the Bible, the concordance is my next step. Peace appears in the Bible 429 times according to the Strong’s Concordance.

As I’m looking through the books of the Bible where peace appears there is a trend. Nearly every book in the Bible has the word peace in it; of the 66 books in the Bible only 10 do not have a reference to peace. In the 27 books of the New Testament there is only one book which does not have a reference to peace, 1 John.

Okay, have I got you interested in doing your own investigation with words OR are some of you saying, “Get on with it, you’re boring me?”

Now, let’s find one of the 429 entries on peace.

Psalm 34:12-14 NLT (New Living Translation)

¹² Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous?

¹³ Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!

¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

Ask yourself the question from verse 12. Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? I would guess that 98% of people would response with an answer of YES.

What’s the answer to how to live a long, prosperous life? It tells us in verses 13 and 14.

We’re told exactly what we need to do; keep our mouth from speaking evil and telling lies, turn away from evil, and search for peace. These are all action steps which take work because they wouldn’t simply happen by osmosis.

Did you catch the last few words in verse 14? Work to maintain peace this is a big YIKES! Kind of like when you realize you ate too many snacks over the weekend and now it’s Monday and you know you will have to work at getting back on track.

The words work to maintain it jumped off the page for me because it means just what it says, WORK, to take action. The peace I so greatly desire will not come and swoop me up and carrying me off my feet into a lovely, beautiful garden filled with fresh flowers, rolling streams, and chirping birds. NO. It means I need to take action to continue to have peace.

Are you still thinking, well how do I work at peace? I’m right there with you. Our answer must always come from the Bible, so let’s rephrase the verses like this:

Steps to living a long and prosperous life:

1. Keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies.
2. Turn away from evil and do good.
3. Search for peace and work to maintain it.

Ideas for maintaining peace:

• Don’t be argumentative.
• Have a conscious effort to be a peacemaker trying to live in peace with others.
• When conflict arises bring it out into the open and deal with it before it grows.
• Build good relationships with others.

Our outcome of working to maintain peace is we will live a long prosperous life and receive God’s blessings for doing so.

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