What Will Lead to Peace?

What will lead to peace? We often wonder how to find true happiness.

What do we need to do to be at peace? Sometimes we just want a little peace of mind or time away by ourselves to get away from the stress of life. A nice hot bubble bath, soft music, and a good book.

While these are great things to do to reduce stress, the peace that is talked about in the Bible is much more than that. There are times of peace from war or having peace with others.

Peace is an output of what is on the inside. Those who know Jesus as their Lord Savior have the Holy Spirit within them. And as a result, we exhibit a characteristic that is called the Fruit of the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

Galatians 5:22 ESV

These fruits show others that we belong to God. But there is more to peace than being a spiritual fruit. So how do we obtain peace? And how does that naturally become an output of who we are?

7 Characteristics that Lead to Peace

1. Humbleness

Being a humble person leads to abundant peace. Humility was what God led me to begin writing again. I prayed for God to humble me prior to a job change. And when the job change happened, humility is what helped me to see the change was for the best and I was at peace with it. That meek peace has been abounding ever since.

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Psalm 37:11 ESV

You can read about my job change story HERE.

2. Obedience and Righteousness

Scripture repeats over and over again about obeying God and His commands. And how those who are righteous in completing His Commands have peace.

When we have heard His commands, through the reading of His word or listening to a sermon and are doing what He says, God, who is called peace, is with us.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:9 ESV

Promises of Longer Life and Peace

The person of obedience who is doing what is right, according to God’s commands, will have a future of peace.

Mark the blameless and behold the upgright, for there is a future for the man of peace.

Psalm 37:37 ESV

And righteous living and peace lead to a longer life.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Proverbs 3:1-2 ESV

A life that is focused on God and doing what He says doesn’t make us a puppet that does what he says at his whims. We obey because God knows what is best for us.

If you haven’t read the series on fear (the causes and effects), this will help explain more about that. When we have our focus on God, we have peace instead of fear and we are healthier in mind and body because of it. Thus, peace leads to having a longer life.

3. Wisdom

Every step we take in this life, there are consequences to our actions. When we drive over the speed limit and a police officer is nearby (or a camera takes a picture of your car going that fast), you get a speeding violation/ticket. This is an example of that cause and effect.

The cause of that action can cause you to have distress, be defensive, feel guilt, and have less money in your pocket.

This happened to me once and when I saw the violation in the mail (my car was the recipient of a photo-op!), I was defensive. “This wasn’t me,” I thought, “I hardly drive on that highway.” But the car and license plate in the picture was mine. After re-reading the specific highway and the date, I realized that it was me. 😔

Our Reactions & What we are Learning can Affect our Peace

I could have continued on this denial of my actions and tried to fight the ticket with excuses. One such excuse could have been that I was distracted talking with my mom who was in the car with me and I didn’t realize how fast I was going.

However, I knew that I was guilty and even my mom had reminded me that section of highway was notorious for ‘picking up’ speeders on camera.

When we act wisely, our path is peaceful.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all paths are peace.

Proverbs 3:17 ESV

Solomon, who wrote Proverbs, personifies wisdom as a woman. Wisdom is referred to as a ‘she’ repeatedly in the book of Proverbs.

Will we always act wisely? Nope. But we can choose to learn from our unwise or foolish actions and do better the next time.

When I drove through that stretch of highway a month later, I put my cruise control on and watched the speed limit signs carefully to prevent me from repeating my previous mistake.

Since I chose to humble myself and accept the fault of my actions, I wisely chose a path the next time that lead to peace.

4. Our Minds

This one is such a big one. There is an old saying in computer terminology of “garbage in, garbage out” (or GIGO). This means that if you code a computer program with basic garbage, you are going to get precisely that back out of it.

GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out

Our minds soak up everything that we put in it. If we continue to put garbage into it, we will get garbage out of it. And that garbage-filled mind begins to affect it and you.

Garbage could mean many different things. Movies or television shows that are filled with violence, sexuality, swearing, etc. Or music that speaks to these same topics. Or news that is constantly negative or misleading of the truth. And even the barrage of all of the above on social media can be garbage too.

The constant ‘diet’ or intake of these things, the flesh, affects our minds and leads to death. It robs and destroys our peace.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6 ESV

When your mind is wandering off the path God has designed for you, take a minute and breathe. Say this Bible verse above. While you do that, breathe out the flesh, which is death. And then breathe in the Spirit, which is life and peace. This verse calms me down every time I do that.

The Mind of the Spirit

Notice that I said constant intake of this. Watching or listening to these media types in small bites won’t be bad for you as long as you can outweigh the bad with lots of the good.

If you have bad code in the computer world, it will eventually rise to the surface and cause problems. It is best to clean up the old code and re-write it with some new code that results in a more efficient and clean program.

The clean program for us would be a mind of the Spirit. One that is focused on God and doing His Will and obeying His commands. When we focus our minds on God and trust Him with all we have, we will have perfect peace.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26:3 ESV

Isn’t that such a tremendous promise? This is truly one of my favorite verses. And Romans 8:6 has become more precious to me in the last five or so years.

5. Pray for all People

Praying for others is a way to help others out. It brings our prayers before a Holy God who wants to listen to us. In this command, Paul wrote to Timothy and urged them to pray for all people, including those who are in government positions.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV

And when we pray for others this leads us to peace. Do our prayers help change things? Yes, it can. Depending on the prayer, they are dependent on God’s Will for those we pray for and His Plan for the world. And it can depend on whether the person you are praying for is willing to change.

This leads us to a peaceful and quiet life because we can pray for others and take the focus off of ourselves. Praying for others and loving others helps us to be other-focused instead of self-focused. When we turn inward, it leads to worry, anger and fear. And that is not peaceful and life-giving.

6. Ready for Battle

When we go out the door, we need to put our shoes on. Those shoes protect our feet from getting cut, bruised, burned, or frozen. Shoes are part of our wardrobe for going outside.

And, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Ephesians 6:15 ESV

As Christian, the gospel of Jesus saving us from our sins gives us peace. Our peaceful shoes prepare us for battle as we stay in our house (from the garbage that is within it or within our mind) or as we go out of the house, for the possible garbage out there that will deter or distract us. God is the focus of our peace and our life.

7. Make Peace

“Garbage In, Garbage Out” is another way of saying we reap what we sow. Or the harvest will yield what we planted. When we are peaceful and make peace with others, we will reap a harvest of righteousness.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 3:18 ESV

If we don’t make peace with others in how we act, speak or think, then we harvest a whole lot of nothing but anger, bitterness, and strife.

How do I get it and continue to have peace?

Getting peace comes from the source of all peace, God. You can read about how to get peace here.

Once we have peace in knowing the Lord as our Lord and Savior, how do we continue to have peace or maintain it? Start at the beginning of this list above and work on them. The key that I have found is keeping my focus – my eyes, my heart, my mind, and my soul all focused on God. When I do that, my life is so much more peaceful.

Characteristics that Lead to Peace: Reflection

Which characteristic do you need to work on to obtain more peace in your life? Think of one step you can take today to have more of that characteristic. Ask God for His help in taking that step to become more like Him.

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Resource Library

Check out the resource library for Bible verse cards, bookmarks, and daily Bible verses to study PEACE. These resources are available for stopping by!

Breathe In the Spirit Printable – Download from the Resource Library

One resource that has been great for me to deal with fear, anxiety, and stress. Check out this printable from the Resource Library for how I breathe in the Spirit for life and peace!