Home
Blahs, Blues and Pits
Scripture Interpret
Deceptive Disease
Get Rich Quick
Purpose of Life
Most Important
How to be Blessed
Formula for Peace
Second Cleansing
Extreme Christianity
Instrument Players
Left Behind?
Bible Teachings
Life After Death
At Death
2nd Coming
Unity of Believers
Ordinances
Camp Meetings
Entire Sanctification
Booklets to Order
Order Form
Memo
Living Righteous 1

 

FORMULA FOR PEACE

 Did you ever receive one of those chain letters that promise great wealth if you follow their instructions?  They usually have a testimony of how this person tried many other plans (which failed) and was skeptical of this one too, but lo and behold it worked and he is now wealthy.  I don’t know about you, but I always find it hard to believe.  Even if the guy is telling the truth, that doesn’t mean it will be the same for me.  I thought about this when offering this instruction of how to find this great peace I am writing about.  One time I printed up a booklet entitled “How We Came to the Church of God”.  It contains several testimonies of people from all over the country who have found peace and happiness.  Now while these testimonies are true, there is even a “more sure word of testimony” - the testimony of the Holy Scriptures.  Yes, God who cannot lie; has promised “peace like a river” to “whosoever will”; promised to all who will follow His instructions.  That is what this formula contains.

 

WHAT THIS PEACE IS

The peace I am writing about is peace with God.  For when we have peace with Him, we will be at peace with ourselves.  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee,” (Isaiah 26:3).   This is a peace that nothing need disturb.  Through the eyes of faith we can see all things that happen to us working for our good and contributing to our happiness. (Romans 8:28)

 

ONLY ONE THING KEEPS PEACE AWAY

God wants us, His creation to be happy.   His desire is that we all receive this peace “which passeth all understanding”.   However, there is some­ thing that prevents this.   Yes, something that separates us from the very God of Peace.   It is the same thing that separated Adam and Eve and all others from Him...disobedience. “But your iniquities [disobedience] have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you…” (Isaiah 59:2).  Therefore, to have peace we must deal with that which separates us from God.   The first ingredient in the formula for peace is.....

 

A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

This is to recognize our true relationship with God.  In determining this we must use God’s Word and not just lean to our own understanding.  Now while it takes God to reveal to us our true condition, we must be honest and humble enough to admit it.  One very deceptive trap is that of self justification.   There are always many people doing things worse than we are.   There are always some good things we do in life that many others may not do.   But the issue is not if we believe in God, or go to church regularly, or abstain from certain sins.  The issue is disobedience…  Any disobedience will make us an outlaw, an alien to God.   All of us inherited a carnal nature from Adam, (Romans 5:12).  Therefore at sometime in our life we “sinned and came short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23).  When we were a small child, God held us innocent, but there came a time when we knew better, and became guilty before God.   Some of us went deeper than others but we “all have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way...” (Isaiah 53:6). We are spending a lot of time on this first ingredient because it is so important and seemingly so difficult for many.   We are living in a very religious, day and time.  That factor coupled with carnal pride makes it difficult for many to take this humble route.   It takes a honest and humble person to admit their true condition with God.  But nothing short of this will suffice.  This is the first step in finding peace with God.  The rest of the ingredients in this formula for peace are listed as sub-titles.  

 

DESIRE AND DECISION

Once being awakened to our condition - realizing we are guilty before God we then must desire to do something about it.  The Philippian jailer in Acts 16:30, cried out: “What must I do to be saved?”   Besides this desire to be saved we must decide we are going to pay the Bible price to get it.   A mere knowledge of our sins or the admitting we are guilty in itself is not sufficient.   With this realization we must have:

 

GODLY SORROW (II Corinthians 7:10)

Once we see and admit that the reason we do not have peace with God is because of our sins, we must be sorry we have done them.  Not a worldly sorrow that we have been found out, but a sorrow that we have wronged a just God.   This type of sorrow will lead us to:

 

REPENTANCE

Repentance goes on from being sorry, to taking action about.  The most prominent idea of repentance is that of forsaking sin.  “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord... for He will abundantly pardon,” (Isaiah 55:7).  In true repentance we say good bye to the old life of sin.   Anything we have been doing that we know is wrong, we are done with from here on out.  Anything that we have not been doing that we know we should, we will start doing from here on out.

CONFESSION (I John 1:9)

Confession doesn’t mean to name out every sin, as it is doubtful we remember every one.  But we must confess our acts of disobedience as sins, not mistakes or human short comings.   Our confession is made to God, not man, as only God can forgive us.

 

RESTITUTION (Ezekiel 33:15)

This is making our wrongs right to the best of our ability.  We may not be able to do all of this at once, but we must have a willingness to do what we can when the opportunity is afforded.         

 

FORGIVENESS (Matthew 5:23-24)

We are not speaking of God forgiving us, but we are to forgive any who may have wronged us.  Every grudge must be laid down to be able to receive forgiveness and peace from God.

 

PRAYER

This is the vehicle we use to reach God.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or worded just right, but it must be sincere to be accepted.

 

FAITH

This is believing that God knows our motive.   Believing that because His word says so we can believe He will forgive us, (I John 1:9).  Faith is believing that He can change us, (II Cor. 5:17).   When we put this last ingredient into practice (assuming we’ve done the others) the peace will come.  It will flood our soul.   We will know the major decision in life has been made.  The guilt of it all will somehow melt away and peace will be there in its place.   As you can see the formula is simple, yet is more than just holding up our hand and saying we accept Christ.  Most people (even many religious folks) will live and die and never experience the peace we have just described.  That is sad indeed. Yet there is something worse, something even more sad.  That would be to find this great peace and then lose it.  In the Bible, Demas, Judas and others did.  Peter did, but found it again.   Our thought is: at all costs don’t lose this great treasure.   Stay honest with God and do all that He shows you.   Bill Roberts  

Order additional gospel literature if you plan to continue on with God.

Gospel Truth and Publications, P.O. Box 142 Jackson Center, OH 45334


  Click here to read: Have you Received the Second Cleansing Since you Believed

This site was last updated 12/28/07

 1346