Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born…and His name shall be called the Prince of Peace.”

In the Bible, the word for peace, ‘shalom’, has three meanings: peace within ourselves, peace between ourselves and others, and peace with God. When God created us, humans were gifted with this sense of ‘shalom’. However, sin destroyed our inner peace, our peace with fellow humans and peace with God.

As I write this devotional this first day of November, I don’t know who will be elected as our next president. However, whatever our political leanings, we can all agree that our world does not have peace. Serious wars are occurring in many places and autocratic governments are the new norm for many countries, with a lessening of civil liberties world-wide. My heart was sickened last night, watching Frontline’s report on the political victory of the far-right “Freedom Party” in Austria, who broadcasts, among other things, that the Holocaust was a hoax.

Where is the Prince of Peace in today’s world?

Two things comfort me. First, I know that all of the world’s leaders are under God’s control. The Bible teaches in Proverbs 21:1 that, “The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever He wishes.” Nothing happens apart from God’s sovereign will.

Second, as Billy Graham preached, “To have peace, we must possess the Peace-Giver. Only then can we have peace with God, peace with others and peace within ourselves.”

Have you been able to share this sense of deep peace from the Peace-giver with others in the midst of our broken world? Remember His promise to his flock: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you shall have troubles but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Diane Perman