How to Avoid Peace, Love, and Eternity: Is That Really Possible?

 Are you a skeptic about religion? Is peace, love, and eternity unattainable?

Have you ever interacted with a Christian who portrays peace no matter how bad their circumstances get? Have you ever wanted that same kind of peace, or do you doubt?

Is peace, love, and eternity possible?

PEACE

Christians have problems. A life committed to God doesn’t give you a pass. We’ll still experience troubles and disappointments. In reality, the Christian you know is handling internal and external battles the same as you. Worry doesn’t disappear. The difference is their approach to problems. They rely on God. “Then God’s peace will watch over your hearts and your minds. He will do this because you belong to Christ Jesus. God’s peace can never be completely understood.” Philippians 4:7 NIRV

Yes, even the Bible explains that God’s peace as something hard for humans to grasp.  Yet, peace is possible.

How do Christians attain the peace you observe?

We all worry, stress, fret, and wish we could change our circumstances, but the Christian practices giving their worries to God. If we sat across from one another with a cup of coffee, I would explain how I lived for many years without God. I considered myself a good person. So, I didn’t need to pray. I saved prayer for emergencies. One day I found myself a divorced mother. Then I prayed.

Through a desperate and earnest quest to change my trajectory, I learned how daily choices eased my inner turmoil.

While we sipped our coffee, I’d encourage you to lean on God through prayer and Bible reading like I learned to do. It took years for me to accept God’s wisdom. Years for me to trust.

As you take this step as I did, you’ll find people who will pray with you. You’ll see evidence of God’s work in your life.

Christians let go of worry because they trust God.

Now consider this …GOD IS THE CREATOR

Walk outside and pick a flower. Examine the center to find the seeds. A simple flower, like the zinnia, grows a center disc, which houses its reproductive system. After the bloom dries, the disc is filled with seeds. Nature procreates itself, not by magic or cosmic accident. Nature is the work of God. His creation. Look around at the mountains, oceans, cliffs, deserts, glaciers, trees, rocks, and plants. Does your inner voice tell you that nature’s magnificence wasn’t coincidental?

Nature shows us that Earth isn’t accidental. Earth’s rhythm, orbit, and job as home for humans, animals, and plants was planned. The variety in nature speaks for God. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 NIV

Think about all the flowers in the world. When I look at a zinnia, a sense of the miraculous fills me. I see the result of God’s work. If you accept God as the creator of nature, can you accept him as the leader of your life?

But what about all the trouble in the world?

Now, let’s talk about something we often forget: choice.

GOD GAVE US CHOICES

    

Since creation, God gave humans the power of choice. We’re battling good and bad every day. Satan spends his energy making sure we doubt God. He lies and leads us away from the way God advised us to live our lives. “Will that really kill you?” Satan teaches us to rationalize bad decisions—“You’ll be wiser. More powerful. Go ahead. God just doesn’t want you to be like him.” Paraphrase of Genesis 3:2-4 CEV

Creation sounds like a good story, you say, but is God real?

GOD IS REAL

Former atheist, Lee Strobel, investigated God’s authenticity.  A former Chicago Tribune legal editor, he planned to disprove Christianity. Instead, his journey led him to believe the evidence of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As a result, he accepted Jesus and wrote the book, The Case for Christ, to share the evidence he uncovered. If you’re a skeptic or questioning your faith, Strobel’s book is a good place to start researching.

The other place to search for God is in the Bible. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Hebrews 1:3 NIV

PRAY FOR ME

Have you ever asked someone to pray for you when you were going through a hard time, even though you weren’t sure God exists? That’s a clue that you may believe God is real. The Bible says we pray to a living God. Revelation 1: 18a NIV “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!”

When we say, “Please pray,” we’re reaching out to the living God—not a distant force or an idol. We aren’t praying to a deceased person, a statue, or to a celestial being that has no power or control over our lives. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29: 12-13 NIV

It’s all good—peace, love, and eternity, but why should we pray to God who doesn’t stop all the suffering in the world?

BACK TO OUR CHOICES

Remember, God created us with the capacity to love, think, and make choices. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve made a choice that brought a lifetime of consequences for good and evil to all of us.

Can you relate? I’ve certainly made plenty of wrong choices. But God planned a way out for us.

Love is possible.

HEAVEN

What would be the point of all this earthly trauma if there wasn’t a happy ending? Once you accept Jesus as creator and Lord of your life, you’ll feel better knowing the all-knowing God is guiding you.

The Christian looks forward to the day when all the sin and sadness of Earth is gone. God promises a future without hate, anger, grief, or sadness. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain. All the old ways are gone. The one who was sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted.” Revelation 21: 4-5 ERV

Search the Bible for evidence of Heaven: 1 Peter 1:4 NIV, Acts 1:11 NIV, John 14:2 NIV

Eternity is possible.  

So, what does this all mean for you?

In summary, Christianity is a different way of living. Our way of thinking is opposite from the way culture teaches us to think. We see and feel differently, and we know that peace, love, and eternity is possible. We look at the world through the eyes of Jesus.

Have you found this material worth pondering? Worthy of your prayers? If you’re still thinking, hey, God may be real, but there are so many religions and so many gods, who knows who’s right? Remember this—God knew the world would doubt, so He left a message for all of us.

“I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,” Isaiah 45:5 NIV

CHALLENGE

Please, friend, ask God to reveal Himself to you. Don’t allow Satan to whisper his lie into your ear—will it really kill you? Satan’s aim is for you to doubt God. In the end, you must decide: can you really avoid peace, love, and eternity forever?

Prayer

If you don’t know how to pray, Jesus left us with an example in Matthew 6: 9-13 NIV

Yes, my friend, peace, love, and eternity is possible.