Do Not Disturb

I always feel some great empowerment when I place a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the outside of a hotel room. As wife, mother, caretaker and home engineer I rarely have been able to state this with a clean conscience in my home. I must admit I have imagined that peace was the absence of disturbance, conflict or discord. But as I have studied peace this Christmas season, giving honor to Jesus Christ: Prince of Peace, I am seeing how I misunderstood God's meaning of peace on earth.

In Hebrews 12:14 I read, "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord."

Yesterday Chatty Kelly left a great comment on the post, Craving Peace. As much as I would love to think I have come to the glorious peace promised us believers in the Bible I know I am still coming to that wisdom. Craving and pursuing peace: God's way is expensive and cannot be just with the absence of disturbance. In fact, to remove the root causes of disharmony will probably increase disturbances initially.

In an old classic Bible commentary by Matthew Henry I am enlightened with "Peace with men, of all sects and parties, will be favourable to our pursuit of holiness. But peace and holiness go together; there can be no right peace without holiness. Where persons fail of having the true grace of God, corruption will prevail and break forth; beware lest any unmortified lust in the heart, which seems to be dead, should spring up, to trouble and disturb the whole body. Falling away from Christ is the fruit of preferring the delights of the flesh, to the blessing of God, and the heavenly inheritance."

In this information age it is so easy for us Christians to become deceived. We have much human wisdom filling our ears, before our eyes and surrounding us through all the media in our daily lives. Peace as the world understands it is the absence of conflict and disturbance. Nations usually consider themselves at peace when they are not at war with another nation, or not experiencing rebellion or conflict from within.

Families think of themselves at peace when there is no quarreling between family members, and an individual may speak of peace in terms of not being disturbed. “Don’t bother me, let me have some peace.”

Yet these negative concepts of peace - peace as the world sees it - are far from the peace that Christ promised to those who follow Him. The Bible warns us that except for the grace of God even the elect will be deceived.

So, perhaps disturbing me is a part of peace on earth. I pray to be willing to be disturbed where I need to be. I want to please God in my pursuit of peace with all people as I seek His sanctification to be holy in Him.

Have you ever yearned for your own "Do Not Disturb" door sign?