How to Find Peace with God
A REPENTANT HEART AND FAITH IN GOD’S PROVISION
The purpose here is to show people how to find peace with God. We share truths from the Bible with reason and common sense. We don’t beat around the bush but get straight to what God requires of us and what He has done for us that we may have peace with Him. So, here goes – I pray God will give you understanding.
To have peace with God you must believe He exists
To start with, to have peace with God one must believe that He exists and that He created the universe and all that is in it including mankind. The Bible states it this way, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) If you don’t believe there is a God, go to the menu above and select Why Believe in God.
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What is it in the human condition that causes us to seek peace with God
If we are seeking peace with God, we believe that He exists and that we are accountable to Him for what we do with our lives. We realize that He has given us freedom of choice, but He also gave us a conscience to tell us what is right and wrong. The reason we seek peace with Him is that we (all of us) know that we have not always chosen right over wrong. In fact, we often have done what we knew or believed was wrong. Sensing that He sees all we do, we also sense our guilt before Him, and we want to know how we can be forgiven – not just for what we’ve already done but also for failures that may occur in the future. Without forgiveness we know that eventually we will face God’s judgment for all the wrong we did and the good we should have done but failed to do.
The good news is that God loves us and has done a wonderful thing for us so we can be forgiven. The Bible (Acts 20:21) says to have peace with God, to have forgiveness, and to be saved from God’s judgment on our wrongdoings, we must approach Him in an attitude of repentance and have faith in the wonderful thing He has done for us through Jesus Christ. Repentance means a couple of things. First, it means you admit to yourself and to God that you have done things you know were wrong. As mentioned above all of us know we have done wrong, and the Bible (Romans 3:23) confirms it. None is truly righteous – completely without sin – what the Bible calls wrongdoing. Sin is a wrong action, ugly words, or an impure or evil thought. Repentance also means that with remorse and contrition you want to and choose to turn from wrongdoing and start living the way you believe God wants you to live. Everyone who comes to God seeking forgiveness must come to Him in an attitude of repentance.
Genuine repentance shows God you are serious about change and prepares your heart to understand and believe what God has already done so that you can be forgiven and have peace with Him. Note it is what God has done – we cannot save ourselves. We can do nothing to earn or merit forgiveness (Ephesians 2:8-9) – it is a gift from God (Romans 6:23). Here is where faith comes in. Faith means you believe to the point of trusting in or relying on what God has done. Read on below to see the amazing, wonderful thing God did to rescue us from our sin.
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What God did for us to rescue us from our sin and reconcile us to him
What God did so that we could be saved from our sins and have peace with Him is called the Gospel, which literally means good news. I mention Gospel because you may have heard the word. Out of His great love and mercy toward us here is what God did for us:
Knowing that each person would need to be saved, before God created the world (Ephesians 1:4) He planned the way He would save man. The Bible says God loves each one of us and does not want anyone to perish as judgment for our sin. (2 Peter 3:9) But God is a just God and cannot let our sins go unpunished – else he would not be just. So, God’s plan was that at the appropriate time in human history, He would come to earth as a man. That person would be both God and man.
This event happened over 2000 years ago – that person was Jesus Christ ( John 1:1, 14). Jesus would explain the scriptures God had given us through the prophets. He would live His life without sin and in such a way that we would know He had to be God. How do we know He had to be God? It is because of the many and various miracles that only one of God could do. But the main part of God’s plan was that the one who was both God and man and without sin – Jesus Christ – would receive the punishment for all the sins of mankind. Through His prophets, God told us some 700 years before Jesus came that He would pay the price for our sins, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each one to his own way, but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
That happened when the Romans crucified Jesus on the cross. As Jesus had promised His disciples, He rose from the grave after 3 days. He met with the disciples for the next 40 days and commissioned them to tell the world what God had done for mankind. Then, as they looked on, Jesus ascended into heaven.(Acts 1:9) This is the history witnessed by Jesus’ disciples and thousands of others who lived in the regions where Jesus lived and taught. His disciples died trying to share this good news with the world. The good news – when Jesus died on that cross He took all our sins upon Himself.
That’s how much God loves us and what He was willing to do for us so that we could be forgiven and made right with Him. (John 3:16) The moment you believe that God did this for you too, you are forgiven, have peace with God, and are pardoned from the condemnation of your sin. God assigned your sins to Jesus when He died for you, and He assigns Jesus’ righteousness to you when you believe. (2 Corinthians 5:21) This belief means faith, trust in what God has done on the cross in Jesus Christ to save you. The Bible says the moment we believe we are changed – like being born again. (John 3:3 and 2 Cor. 5:17) The Bible also says that at that moment God’s Spirit comes to live in you, (Romans 8:9-11) to help you understand spiritual truths and to help you live the way you now want to live – in ways that are pleasing to God.
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How do I know this good news, this Gospel is true
As you get more and more familiar with the account of Jesus’ life as told in the Bible, you realize that this gospel story holds together, and its truthfulness becomes evident. The eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life were given to us by principled men. Jesus’ whole life was about love and truth, and the disciples who recorded His life did so in a mindset committed to the truth. That something enormously profound happened when Jesus came is clear, for the world started counting years in a new way – from the time of Jesus’ coming. Indeed, for Jesus to have done all the things attributed to Him, He must have been of God. The clearest picture of who Jesus was and what He did can be found in the book of John – the 4th book in the New Testament portion of the Bible. John was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and an eyewitness to Jesus’ teachings, miracles, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead. John makes it clear why people back then were convinced that Jesus was the Savior and why we too should be convinced.
You can have peace with God right now
Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ is what you must do to have peace with God. Have you done this? If not, you can do it right now. In an attitude of repentance, in a short prayer tell God you do believe that Jesus died and paid the price for your sins too. Prayer is simply talking to God knowing that He is listening. If you prayed this prayer, then you have His forgiveness, are right with Him, and at peace with Him. “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1.
What now that you have peace with God
Once you realize that God has saved you and forgiven you, the appropriate response toward God is gratitude. It is that gratitude that motivates the rest of our lives to try to live in ways that are pleasing to Him. Gratitude is more than just verbally expressing our thanks, it is showing God by living our lives in ways that are pleasing to Him. It is the Bible that informs us of the things that are pleasing to Him. Does this mean you will never sin again? No, we live in flesh and blood bodies, and though we intend to always do right, sometimes we will fail and sin again. But God knows this and has a way for us to deal with it. See Appendix I (below) The Ongoing Struggle of the Desire for Doing Good in a Body of Flesh.
What if you have doubts
As a new believer, doubts may creep in about your new faith. Others may question it. But the Bible says you can know that you are saved and have eternal life. (Note that there are several terms synonymous with peace with God: saved, eternal life, forgiven, reconciled to God) Jesus Himself gave us assurance when He said, “Truly, truly, he that believes in me has eternal life.” (John 6:47) John, the disciple mentioned above, wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13) Remember these when doubts try to creep in and praise God for His gift to you of eternal life knowing this also – that the gifts of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)
Appendix I-The Ongoing Struggle of the Desire for Doing Good in a Body of Flesh
Having repented of sin and understood, believed, and placed our trust in what God did through Jesus on the Cross to save us, we are permanently changed – for the rest of our lives we now want to live lives pleasing to God. We don’t want to go on sinning. At this point the new believer needs to become aware of two truths that may be new to him.
Blog Section
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First, I want the reader to understand – like everyone else who wants to do right I am a work in progress. Even though I know right from wrong and want always to do the right things, I still fail at times hurting others or God or both.
