God’s Peace
by Sharon Chatwell

I’m in my early 60s. This means I have about 50 years of clear memories of news events, politics, fads and fashions, stemming from the early 70s. I even remember when JFK died, although I was just a little girl; the reactions of the adults around me were so remarkable that I still remember exactly where I was. In all of that time I will tell you what I have learned: God is the only One we can trust to tell us the truth and the only One who can give us peace.

Let the world rage and war. Let kingdoms rise and fall. Let political events come and go. God is the only One you can rely upon to tell you the truth and to provide you with peace.

The world’s celebrities, dictators and influencers all have their moments in the sun, but they soon fade away. Trends and “new ideas” are mostly just efforts to get you to stop doing what you are doing and start doing something else; usually this change separates you from at least some of your money. They just don’t ring true.

I was there in the 60s. The “hippies” who demonstrated and said things like “Make Love, Not War” and “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” are now all Medicare age or older, if they survived at all. I wonder if they still expect us to trust them.

I was there in the 70s. The music idols of the time, who told us that the answers were found in “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” were wrong. And, as far as I’m concerned, they owe those of us who bought their records and danced away our teenage years lots of cold hard cash in restitution.

I won’t speak of the 80s or the 90s or later decades, because you well remember some or all of those. They were also full of deceit and wickedness. So, through the years, how do we discern those telling us lies from those telling us the truth?

Suffice it to say that God tells the truth and offers mankind peace through His Son, Jesus Christ. Anyone who tells you anything that goes against God’s truth is lying to you. You are being sold a lie.

Let that sink in for a minute. Look around you. What kind of lies are people selling you today? What kinds of things are in the headlines? Do their claims line up with what God says in His Word, the Bible? Guess what…if not, they are lying to you.

Don’t worry, their lies will eventually be found out. But like most liars, they will just tell a new lie. A bigger lie. And, if they get caught in their lies, they will simply blame someone else. They may even blame you. And, if you have believed in or perpetuated their lies, sadly you may actually be partly to blame.

I remember CB radios. Citizen ban radios became incredibly popular in the late 70s, when they became communication devices not just for truckers, but for everyone. Movies like Smokey and the Bandit popularized them and, along with a new federal speed limit of 55 miles per hour on all the interstates, launched them into virtually every vehicle on the road.

Happily, the craze eventually died out and now CBs are found mostly in the cabs of big-rigs, where they belong.

To me, things like Facebook and Instagram are the CB radios of tomorrow. They are communication devices destined to fade away. Like all fads and fashions, they come and go. And we are wise to realize the glitz and glamour associated with them will one day be picked up and passed along to other such future-CB-radios.

“…there is nothing new under the sun,” says the writer in Ecclesiastes 1:9b (NASB).

God offers peace. He is the only One who has peace and the only One who can offer it. As Christians, our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Our salvation is secure. No matter what happens. No matter what lies we are told. No matter who tries to sell us a new type of CB radio, if we can just keep our eyes focused on God and what He has to say, we won’t be taken in.

We should remember that in general, as wives of doctors, we are highly visible and often influential people. We need to try to remember that, especially as we move around and say what we believe about the hot topics of our day. As Christians and as leaders in our churches, or Side By Side chapters, we need to understand what God says first, before we start teaching things to others that might not be true.

No matter how strongly we feel about a subject, we need to double-check what the revealed Word of God has to say about it before sharing our opinions with others. I have found throughout the years that God is right all the time, even when I don’t particularly like what He has to say. He is still right. And we can trust what He has to say. And inevitably this trust in God leads to us having the peace of God.

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3, NASB).

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, NASB).

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Sharon is the wife of a doctor, living in beautiful Lincoln, Nebraska. She prays you will have the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension.