Wouldn’t you love to have peace?

All the world is looking for peace, but they typically look in all the wrong places: in their routines, in their relationships, in their own best efforts. All of that looking, and still, they can’t find peace.

In the opening of his letter to the Galatians, Apostle Paul, with laser-like precision, points us to exactly where we need to look to find peace: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen,” (Galatians 1:1–5)

Beloved, grace and peace aren’t things you dig up and find. They’re things you receive, and they come from one place: from Christ, who gave Himself for your sins. Not because you earned it. Not because you cleaned up first. He gave Himself for you, right where you were.

And let’s be honest, right where you were was a mess. Apostle Paul says you were “delivered.” That’s rescue language. You weren’t improved. You weren’t upgraded. You were pulled out and saved. You were delivered from the chaos, hostility, and eternal danger brought on by your sin. And all of this was done through Jesus Christ by the gracious will of the Father.

This is the foundation Apostle Paul lays here in the book of Galatians before he says anything else. Before correcting them, before teaching them, he solidifies the foundation by pointing them back to Jesus.

You see, one of the reasons he wrote them is because they had drifted from that foundation. They had begun to do what we all do when our faith in Jesus becomes weak. You start adding things to try to regain that peace with God—rules, rituals, religion. And slowly, your peace goes away because you have moved away from the foundation of peace, Christ Jesus.

Beloved, don’t let that happen. Your peace has a name—Jesus. Go back to Him. Start there. And stay there. And you’ll never be without peace.

Change begins in you!