Are you haunted by the ‘what-ifs’ of life? In this episode of the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley, we dive deep into the predominant emotions that often rule our daily existence—conflict, loneliness, and peace. Discover how the Prince of Peace promises us lasting serenity through faith. We explore real-life examples, like the healing stories in the scriptures, demonstrating that true peace transcends life’s uncertainties.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, February 2nd. Are you constantly haunted by the what-ifs? Don’t let fear of the unknown control you. Discover where true assurance comes from living in lasting peace on today’s podcast.
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which of these words would describe the most predominant emotion that you have to deal with each day of your life that is this is the emotion that’s always seemingly laying in there this is the one you sort of wake up with or sometimes you can forget it but most of the time it’s the overriding predominant emotion in your life so let me just mention several of them for example conflict rejection emptiness Loneliness, rushed, overwhelmed, empty, or peace? Which one of those best describes Your predominating emotion, the one that sort of overwhelms and overrides all of the emotions that you have. You have changing emotions, all of us do. But probably there’s one that sort of permeates all the rest of them. Is it possible for us to live with a steadfast peace? Is it possible for us to live in the midst of difficulty and hardship in a world full of conflict? when there is want and need? Is it possible for us to face needs in our life and still have peace? Is it possible for us to walk through storms and still have peace? Is it possible to suffer loss and still have peace? Is this simply an empty promise or is this the real thing? What is that dominating emotion that’s always laying back there in your life? Well, it’s interesting that the prophet Isaiah, when he was talking about the coming Messiah, he prophesied his coming, and then he described him in a beautiful way. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah is a wonderful, wonderful prophet of things to come. And one of his most beautiful prophecies, one of the most important ones, is in this ninth chapter of his prophecy. He says, beginning in verse 6, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. When he said Prince of Peace, he sent us a message. that he would be the provider of that peace and he would make that peace a reality within our life. He is certainly God. He’s certainly a deity. He’s certainly a wonderful counselor. There’s none to match him. He is the Prince of Peace. And everywhere you turn, people want to know. They want to experience peace. We’d like to see peace in the world. We’d like to see peace in the nation of Israel with all the people around them. We’d like to see peace everywhere. The place we want to see it most is right on the inside of us. And the question is, is it truly a reality when Jesus said, that he would give us peace, my peace I leave with you? Is that reality or is that just something that’s sort of nebulous out there somewhere? Well, let’s see that it is. And I want you to think about his life for a moment. And if you’ll think about, let’s look at several passages of scripture beginning in Mark chapter five. Everywhere Jesus went, he was continually speaking peace to people. And on this particular occasion, he was in a crowd of people. And amidst that crowd, a woman who had been ill because of hemorrhaging for years and years and years. All the doctors had failed. And she decided that she was going to see if Jesus could heal her. But then she was embarrassed about the whole idea. So she slipped up somewhere beside him while he wasn’t looking and just touched the hem of his garment. Like the tip end of your dress or the cuff of a pair of trousers. And then when she did, Jesus stopped and he said… Who touched me? He said, because I felt power move out of me. That is, he says he sensed in her touch of faith something happening inside of him. And what I want you to see here is what he said to her. In this fifth chapter in verse 34, he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. Then in Luke, the seventh chapter, another woman that came to Jesus in a little different situation. She was in the seventh chapter, if you’ll notice that for a moment. She was a woman who was a sinner, the Bible says, probably a prostitute. And she came into a Pharisee’s house that invited Jesus there for lunch or for dinner. And so she came up behind him and she began to weep on Jesus’ feet. and wipe his feet with her hair. Then she poured expensive perfume on them and wiped them with her hair. And Jesus said to her, when the rest of the Pharisees and the other visitors did not understand who is this woman, Jesus said, look what you’re allowing. Here’s what he said to her. Your sins have been forgiven. And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. You’ll recall that in that 20th chapter of John, when Jesus was meeting with his disciples after the resurrection and they were going through some difficulty in their belief. And he appears to them in a room that was shut up because they were afraid. And what did he say? He entered the room and he said, peace be with you. He said, look at my hands. Then he said, peace with you. As the father has sent me, I’m also sending you. Eight days later, because Thomas wasn’t there, he shows up again. And what does he say? Thomas being there, he stood in the midst of them and he said, peace be with you. He was always speaking peace. That isn’t the only thing he spoke, but he was continually speaking peace because he wanted people to experience a relationship with the heavenly father and with him that would bring about peace in their life. And if somebody should ask you today, are you a peaceful person? How would you answer that? If you were just really honest, could you say that the most predominating emotion in your life is one of peace? Doesn’t mean that you don’t go through difficulty, hardship, and pain. Doesn’t mean that you don’t have your trials and your setbacks. Doesn’t mean that you don’t have critics and so forth. But can you honestly say that in spite of all that, there is an overriding sense of peace because I, and then whatever your reason may be, which we’ll talk about in a moment, can you honestly say that it’s one of peace? Or do you feel rushed and hurt and pressured and and all the responsibilities, and so you’d have to say, well, no, I don’t feel very peaceful about things. Is it that you may feel some of that at times, but deep down inside, there’s an overriding sense of absolute peace? Well, many people could say yes, but most people could say absolutely not. And then they would begin to tell us what they do feel, and it certainly will not be a sense of peace in their life. You recall when Jesus sent his disciples out, he said, when you go into a home, he said, peace be to this house. And I got to thinking about that. What do we say when we meet people? We say, how you doing? How are you? Good to meet you. We say happy to meet you. Sometimes we don’t even know the people. We don’t know whether they’re happy about it or not. And so we have this little phrase we say. I wonder what would happen to people if we began to say to them when we meet them, Peace be to you, my brother. Peace be to you, my sister. Well, first of all, they’d say, Are you trying to be religious or something? I’ll tell you one thing. They wouldn’t forget it. If you meet somebody and you say, Peace be to you. Or if you go visit somebody. You’ve already visited people in their homes. Are you going back to your home or somebody else’s home today or tomorrow? And you’re going to be visiting. And I wonder what would happen… if when you walk in that home, either silently or audibly, you say, Father, peace be upon this home. You say, well, that’s what Jesus told the disciples. But think about this. Is it not true that the same Holy Spirit that lived in those disciples lives within you? He certainly is. Is it not also true that the same power that flowed from them is the same power that we have the potential to flow through us? He didn’t limit that power just to those 12 men. The power of the Holy Spirit is available to every single believer. So that when you and I walk into a home and we say, Father, peace be upon this household. Does God answer that prayer? Yes, he does. And we say to someone we meet, especially, for example, people who are going through difficulty, we say, well, I just want you to know I’m praying for you. I wonder if we would say what Jesus said, peace be to you. Peace be to you. Because listen, all the words I could think of, trying to find enough of them to say the same thing that one simple word says, peace. Peace. Everybody knows what peace is to some degree. It is a Greek word in the New Testament. The little word is arene. And what it really means is to be bound together. That is to bind together that which was separated, that which was divorced, that which was broken, that which was torn apart. And that’s what God does in your life and mine when He reconciles us. That is when He brings us into a right relationship with Him. He takes us from our position out here, torn away from Him, separated from Him. And what does He do? He brings us in His loving, tender care, brings us unto Himself, and He binds us together with Himself. So that a person who has trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is a person who has been bound by God to God through their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose death at Calvary atoned for their sin and made it possible for, listen, for sinners to be bound to a holy God and made righteous in the process. And so when you think about… What is this that God is up to in our life? He’s up to doing something awesome in our life. He’s up to this whole idea of bringing peace into our life. And so when you look at how Jesus spoke and how he would oftentimes convey to people peace, he was saying something to them. And so I want you to think about this verse, if you’ll turn to John chapter 14 for a moment, because Jesus says something very significant here, this 14th chapter. 14th chapter of john the night before he’s crucified now and the disciples are all upset and they don’t know what’s going on they’ve heard him say a lot of things that didn’t seem to match up with him if he were if he’s truly god and if he’s the son of god and he has all power this doesn’t seem to match up in the process of all this listen to what he says in the 27th verse he said to them peace peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. He said, I’m giving you a different kind. So let’s think about for just a moment, what kind of peace is it that the world has to offer? Now, what is the world according to scripture? According to scripture, the world is the world system. That is society and life minus God. What does society have to offer? How can a person find peace in this society? I want you to think about something. There’s a key. The reason the world can never have peace is because the most essential element in genuine true peace is missing. And so what do they do? They have to have things and position and prosperity and popularity and power or whatever it might be, a little bit of wealth or a whole lot of wealth or just enough to get by. In other words, their idea of peace is related to something. some experience that they can have apart from God. They don’t think about it in that way, but that’s sort of what’s going on. If they can get enough pleasure and pack enough pleasure into their life and fill up enough time with good things, then certainly they would say, well, surely I do have peace. You see, their kind of peace is sort of skin deep. It’s not adequate. It’s not sufficient to deal with the basic issues of life we have to deal with. And so this is why they fill the bars. They buy drugs, affairs, everything and anything to get their mind off what is stealing their peace from them or they think is stealing their peace. And so what the world has to offer is inadequate. So what is it? What’s the basic element that’s missing? Here’s the basic element that’s missing. Remember what we said the very idea of peace is in the New Testament? The very word means to bind together. A person without Jesus Christ is not bound together with the only person who can give them peace. And so because they haven’t been bound together with him, the key element in peace is, listen, the key element in peace is the presence of God in their life. Jesus said, my peace I give to you. And Paul said in Ephesians chapter two, he says, Jesus Christ is our peace. Now listen carefully. Jesus does not give us peace as a result of our prayer. Peace isn’t something he gives us apart from himself. his presence within us is the presence of peace within us and then we learn how to apply the truth of the lord jesus christ living within us in our life and so when we say what is the chief element in peace the chief element in peace is this relationship this relationship we have with god through his son jesus christ and apart from him there is no peace cannot be any peace because he is the very source of peace And so you have to look and say, well, a person says, well, I think I do have peace. Well, what’s the source of it? I guarantee you they will begin to name experiences or things or relationships or whatever minus God. If they do not know Christ as their Savior, they’re not going to mention Him. For example, somebody says, well, how would you describe this peace? It is an inner sense of contentment. An inner sense of contentment. And quietness in the midst of perplexities and difficulties and hardships. That is, a person who has genuine godly peace is a person who can live in the midst of a storm and feel the howling winds and feel the tornadoes and the earthquakes and everything around them beating against them. Listen, and all of that avalanche of difficulty, hardship, and trouble on the outside, on the inside… There’s a sense of indescribable quietness and contentment. You say, well, how could that be? Because it is not based on anything about our circumstances, anything about our surroundings, anything about events, anything about what somebody else does. Someone says, well, I could have peace in my heart if it wasn’t for him or if it wasn’t for her or it wasn’t for that. No, you know what? Tell you why that’s a fallacy in our thinking. That didn’t give you peace. He didn’t give you peace, nor did she give you peace. The source of your peace is the person of Jesus Christ. My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He says, you don’t have to give in to the trouble that you may feel in the moment. For example, all of us can get hit on the blind side by something that at that moment causes either fear or uncertainty, but the moment we know how, and when we learn how to respond, the moment we respond correctly, you know what happens? All of a sudden, that turmoil that faced us briefly, it is only in a brief moment, and then we know exactly what to say and how to respond, and I’m coming to that. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you’re going through in life. The Prince of Peace was born about 2,000 years ago. And He’s still alive, sitting at the Father’s right hand, living inside of you if you’ve ever trusted Him as your personal Savior. And my friend, He’s not sort of adequate. He’s not mostly adequate. He’s not sometimes adequate. He’s not most of the times adequate. He is a God who can give you absolute, lasting, sustaining, established, immovable, unshakable, unchangeable, unalterable, indescribable peace no matter what you’re going through in life. That’s who He is. And so when you think about the kind of peace that He gives, somebody says, well, I can understand that, but why does it say that in the Bible? So I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter 16 for a moment. Look at this. There’s nothing that you and I need to know that’s not in this wonderful book. John chapter 16, and I want you to listen to what he said. Listen to this, if you will, in verse 33. These things I have spoken to you so that in me, look at that, the two most important words in this sentence are two little two-letter words. In me, you may have peace. Not apart from me, but in me. What is he saying? He says in me that is in that relationship. In the 15th chapter, for example, he talked about our abiding relationship. That we’re abiding in him. That is we’re resting in him. Living in him. Trusting in him. That our life has its source, the person of Jesus Christ. So when he says in this passage, he says, these things I have spoken to you so that in me, you may have peace. Now in the world, you have tribulation, but take courage. I’ve overcome the world. Does that mean, for example, that if I’m a child of God, that I won’t have any more tribulation? No, it doesn’t. Here’s what it means. He says, in the world, you’re going to have tribulation. What I’m going to give you is a peace that will make it possible for you to be able to ride on the top of the storms of the tribulations in life, no matter what they are, with a sense of abiding indescribable contentment and quietness of the soul when everything around you is blowing apart. And you see, that’s exactly what the world needs. That’s what every single individual needs because we’re all going to go through storms in life. We’re either going to be blown away by the storm, knocked off track, be tempted to take detours. Are we going to stay steady to face the winds and the turmoil of life because we have a relationship with someone? who has proven to be adequate and sufficient to meet every single storm of life. He is our peace. Paul said, Jesus Christ is our peace. And so no matter what you’re facing today, how difficult, how trying it may be, No matter how long it’s been going on in your life and you think, well, Lord, if you really and truly love me, you wouldn’t let this happen. Yes, because here’s what happens. How would you and I ever know what he’s like if he didn’t toss us in the fire every once in a while and say, now watch what I’m going to do for you. He allows the storms not just to prune us and this one’s, he allows the storms to reveal himself, right? watch what i do for you watch how i provide for you watch how i give you an overwhelming sense of indescribable peace watch what i do in the midst of all this god is a loving god who loves us unconditionally he desires that you and i have peace how would we ever know how how powerful it is unless the he increased the storm and so when the intensity of the storm increases listen and my contentment doesn’t decrease, and the quietness of my soul doesn’t become ruffled, what do I learn? That no matter how difficult the storm, His peace is steady, strong, adequate, sufficient to see you through it no matter what.
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Thank you for listening to Living and Lasting Peace. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
Are you haunted by the ‘what-ifs’ of life? In this episode of the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley, we dive deep into the predominant emotions that often rule our daily existence—conflict, loneliness, and peace. Discover how the Prince of Peace promises us lasting serenity through faith. We explore real-life examples, like the healing stories in the scriptures, demonstrating that true peace transcends life’s uncertainties.
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