“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.” Isaiah 9:6
The passage above is a familiar one…especially at this time of year. I have heard and seen it more than a few times in the past month; have you as well? As much as you’ve heard it, have you allowed it to pierce your soul and impact your sense of wellbeing? In other words, is Christ really your Prince of Peace and are you at peace within your soul? I can honestly say that I have been for the past few days. Maybe it’s a bit of maturity, maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been dwelling on this topic or maybe it is simply Christ at work…I suspect that it is mostly the latter. In the past 72 hours I have had a minor fender bender (I tapped our older daughter’s car pulling out of the garage), learned that family circumstances may be changing that will impact our family’s ease in gathering together, endured more severe symptoms of my health issues due to the holiday celebrations and have had a delay in preparing this post, yet my heart is at peace. Though historically unusual for me, it is not entirely unexpected as I’ve been trying to be intentional in applying the things I learn while writing to my own life. While it’s easy to glide over these names of Christ, are they not a summary of the source of our peace?
Christ is our Wonderful Counselor. There is so much packed into that title. With respect to wonderful, He is both divine and human; He had a miraculous conception; He has exhibited both obedience and love beyond any other in submitting to the Father’s will and dying for our sins; and He is absolute perfection and holiness. He is beyond anything that we can fully understand or appreciate as every comparison is a significantly lessor thing. He is also our perfect Counselor. As God, He possesses all wisdom; as The Son of Man, He understands our nature and temptations; and as our Creator, He is fully versed in every detail of our body, mind and soul. Who better to provide wise counsel and guide us through life’s experiences? We often look to other humans to provide wisdom in hope that it will help us achieve the best possible experience in this life. Yet it is Christ’s perfect counsel and the following of it that provides exponentially more potential for a blessed and peaceful existence in this world and a closer relationship with our God.
Time and time again, whether by direct statement or as evidenced in God’s handiwork, we are told that God possesses all strength…He is mighty. Psalm 62:11 tells us that “power belongs to God” and Luke 1:37 instructs us saying “”For nothing will be impossible with God.” Just as our Lord is all wise, He is also all powerful. It is Mighty God who says to us: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) He also says: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) Our Savior, Redeemer and Mighty God invites us to share our concerns with Him and allow Him to protect us, provide for us and sustain us. When we do that, the natural outcome is peace for we know that He loves us completely and that He is able to do more than we can imagine.
Eternal Father…take a minute to let that sink in. For the majority of us, there has come, or will come a day when we say good-bye to our earthly fathers. However, our Savior and Lord is our Eternal Father. He has always been and will forever be. He is the only constant in our lives and is ever present with us both in this life and the next. Everything else that we know has a beginning and end, but God is eternal. Further, in His eternal being, He is also unchanging. Unlike earthly fathers, His strength never wanes, His wisdom never fades and His ability to protect, provide and sustain is absolute and unchanging throughout eternity. Several passages in scripture pair God’s wisdom and power and it makes sense. Power without wisdom is brutish while wisdom without power is ineffectual, but together they accomplish much. Christ, as our Wonderful Counselor knows what we need and what is best for us; as Mighty God, He is able; and as our Eternal Father, He employs that wisdom and might to judiciously provide, defend and sustain us in a way that strengthens our faith. And when He chooses to allow the effects of evil in the world to invade our lives, the intent is to draw us closer to Himself as we recognize our need and to use those experiences to equip and to train us so that we can be effective ambassadors for Him and messengers of His grace in the world. Our Eternal Father reminds us in Matthew 6:25-34 that He knows what we need and promises to provide because we are precious to Him and then He says: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.” By focusing on “the Kingdom of Heaven” rather than the worries of this life, we are gratefully accepting God’s provision for us knowing that He is our loving Eternal Father and allowing His peace to reign in our lives rather than the anxiety that comes from trying to manage everything ourselves.
Because Christ is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God and Eternal Father, He is also our Prince of Peace. For in Him, all that we could possibly need has been secured and provided. All that is asked of us is that we accept His gift and rest in Him free of anxiety. It’s simply a matter of trust. Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God and Eternal Father asks us to trust Him so that He may also be our Prince of Peace. Isaiah 26:3 makes it an assurance: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
Most of the Christmas festivities have been completed. As we pack up the decorations and look to the new year, has it just been another celebration or have we been changed at all? We have celebrated the sacrificial love lavished upon us in Christ’s coming, death and resurrection and considered the hope, the joy and the peace that it offers, but have we truly accepted it? Do we really trust God with the affairs of our life…the large and the small, or are we still trying to manage them. Do we accept the challenges in our lives as invitations to: draw near to Him, grow in grace, and exhibit true joy in our salvation, or are they hurdles that must be eliminated in order to be happy? Our Messiah has come and He is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace. He says to us: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27) Let us accept His gift and give Him full reign in our lives trusting in His wisdom, power, and love and allow His peace that surpasses all understanding invade our lives and free us from all fear.
May the peace of Christ rule in your heart now and always,
Will