~ WE ARE TO PURSUE PEACE
It’s safe to say that peace is hard to come by, it doesn’t come to find us and even more difficult to maintain. Almost daily, Satan arranges circumstances that will steal our peace unless we are determined to hold on to it.
God’s Word teaches us to pursue peace—to seek it, crave it, and go after it. We are to pursue, seek, and crave peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with others.
1 Peter 3:11 AMP instructions us “He must turn away from wickedness and do what is right. He must search for peace [with God, with self, with others] and pursue it eagerly [actively—not merely desiring it].”
In previous devotional, we discussed Jesus Christ as the Prince of peace, now we are to seek and pursue this type of peace for our lives.
Colossians 3:15 AMP tells us “Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise]. To this peace indeed you were called as members in one body [of believers]. And be thankful [to God always].”
The previous verse teaches us to let peace be the “umpire” in our lives, meaning to let peace make the final decision regarding what we do or don’t do. If you have peace, then follow it. If you don’t, then wait to make a decision until you have peace about what to do. Make peace one of your top priorities in life.
Peace is missing from our society today. Satan works diligently to rob us of our peace. I believe that he sets us up to get upset. He arranges circumstances that annoy us, hoping to steal our peace. He also finds people through whom he can work to upset us. But we can defeat him if we will hold on to the peace Jesus left us.
Ephesians 6:10–18 teaches us how to effectively wage spiritual warfare and fight the devil in ways that allow us to win our battles and maintain our peace.
God’s methods and strategies for victory are quite different from the world’s ways. To win the spiritual war, we are to walk in truth, put on righteousness, and put on shoes of peace, meaning to walk in peace (vv. 14–15).
We are to take up the shield of faith to “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (v. 16), and
We are to put on the helmet of salvation (v. 17), so we can think as a child of God should think.
In addition, we are told to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (v. 17). This means we need to speak the Word during times of trouble, because it defeats the devil.
When the devil lied to Jesus, Jesus responded, “It is written,” and then He quoted Scripture to refute the lies Satan tried to convince him to believe (Matthew 4:1–10).
Ephesians 6:18 tells us to cover everything with prayer and to pray at all times with “all kinds of prayers and requests.” Prayer should always be our first line of defense against any problem we face.
Keeping quiet when we are falsely accused is difficult to do. One of our basic instincts is to defend and protect ourselves, because we want people to think well of us. But God is our Defender, and we should pray and wait on Him unless He instructs us to take action. Jesus is our example to keep quiet when we are falsely accused.
Finally, we have to pursue peace, seek it, crave it, and go after it with all our might. We cannot simply pray for it, wish for it, or hope we have it; we must pursue peace and be determined to take peace everywhere we go.
NOW LET US PRAY
Jesus, Prince of peace, thank You for being our peace. Thank You for helping us to fight and for the spiritual weapons that You have given us in Your Word to help us fight Satan as he tries to rob us of our peace on a daily basis. Lord, help us to choose peace in our decision making efforts. Abide with us at all times, Father. In Jesus’ mighty name, I pray. Amen 
Have a blessed day 
