Peace for a New Year

Have you heard the song “Peace” by Michael McDonald? He’s not a regular on the playlist at Equip FM but at Christmas time several of his tunes are added to the mix, this one being the strongest. Actually it’s a song we could play all year, much like “Joy to the World”. That’s song that needs to be “rescued” from Christmas, but that’s another article.

Michael’s song begins with these lines:

I have come from so far away
Down the road of my own mistakes
In the hope You could hear me pray
Oh Lord, keep me in your reach

Those lines resonate strongly in a former prodigal like me, but really anyone could relate to them, I suppose, because most of us recognize that we have messed up big time and wonder if we are with in God’s reach. The good news is we are!

One of my favorite sections of the Bible is in Acts chapter 17 that includes a mini sermon the apostle Paul shared with some intellectuals in Athens. It’s a powerful message that speaks to all people, transcending culture, class and language barriers. After a short introduction Paul proclaims:

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;  and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;  for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’

(Acts 17: 24-28 New American Standard Bible)

I never tire of reading this message. One line in particular stands out, though:

that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him,

 though He is not far from each one of us;

God wants to be “found”! Elsewhere in the Bible He plainly declares:

 Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

(Isaiah 55:6-7 New American Standard Bible)

Those lines from the Old Testament may have come to mind of the young man we know as the prodigal son who “came to his senses” and decided to seek forgiveness. He found a father eagerly waiting for the son’s return.

Michael McDonald continues that theme in his song:

How I've longed through these wasted years
To outrun all the pain and fear
Turned to stone from my uncried tears
And now it's Your grace I seek

You may be wondering why this is considered a Christmas song but this is what Christmas is about: broken, hurt, weary people finding grace, forgiveness and peace, because of the baby born in a manger who would one day hang on a cross. The next lines in Michael’s song convey that message:

Love won't compromise
It's a gift, it's a sacrifice
My soul renewed, and my heart released
In You I'll find my peace

God’s holiness won’t allow Him to compromise with sin and rebellion but His love for us won’t leave us hopeless and without a means for reconciliation. Jesus is the gift, and the sacrifice, and when we trust Him, when we yield our lives to His control and seek His forgiveness, we find the peace we all so desperately crave deep down inside.

The “Christmas part” comes in the next lines of the song as Michael sings:

Oh Wondrous child of whom the angels sing
Know my joy, feels my suffering
Shining star make this love You bring
So bright that I may believe

Peace is part of the message the angels proclaimed to the shepherds that first Christmas. The message of peace is throughout the Bible; Jesus is called the Prince of peace. Paul writes in Philippians about “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:7 (New King James Version). Jesus Himself speaks of peace in one of the most familiar passages of the Bible:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

(John 14:27 New King James Version)

Because of Christmas, because of Jesus we can have peace, for a new day, a new year, for eternity. Michael ends his song with a hopeful affirmation:

That my way will not be lost
From now on, 'til that river's crossed
My soul renewed, and my spirit free
In You I'll find my peace

The world is anything but peaceful. However the unrest in our hearts is what troubles us most, if we are truly honest, and that is precisely what Jesus wants to address in each of us. He came to bring peace to us inside and to provide peace between us, the ones who “have come so far down the road of our mistakes” as Michael McDonald sings, and the God who created us, who loves us and who says “look for Me! I am not far away! I am right here, as close as your breath!”

The good news is that we are within God’s reach; He is not far from us, He wants to be “found” and best of all He wants to give you His peace. As you step into a fresh new year, I pray you do so with the peace of God in your heart.

Happy New Year!

To learn more about a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ click here.

Equip FM serves Lynchburg at 95.3 FM, Amherst and Madison Heights at 88.7 FM, and Appomattox at 90.5 FM. You may also listen online at www.equipfm.org.