Peace as a Verb

For those of you that don’t know, I have 2 diplomas in Biblical studies. In one of the classes I took, I learned how to use a Strong’s Concordance, which is pretty much a Hebrew and Greek dictionary of every word said in The Bible. This has become a powerful tool of figuring out original meanings of words in order to deepen my understanding of verses, along with what I feel like God might be trying to show me.  

All of that to say, the other morning I woke up really wanting to do a deep dive into a word, concept, or verse, and use the Strong’s to deepen my understanding of it. I tried to think of something I’ve been going through or pondering on recently, but nothing was coming to mind. Literally nothing. Not even something that was worthy of a mental discard followed up with “No, not that”. After about two minutes of trying to think, I decided I would wait and let God lay something on my heart. Naturally, within 5 seconds of deciding that, the word “peace” popped into my mind.  

The concept and state of peace is not foreign to me; I consider it a state I am commonly in. Calm, tranquil. “I’m just here” is something I say a lot to express my state of simply being present whenever I am told I’m being quiet. Of course I am not always in this state of mind, but I do feel like peace and I are friends. My “word” for last year was peace (peep my 10 Things I Learned in 2022 post). I decided that if what I was doing didn’t bring me peace, I wasn’t going to proceed. That doesn’t mean giving up quickly and not fighting through hard things or expecting God to pull me out of difficult times, but for more simple concepts if it seemed like too much of a hassle and caused anxiety (not from God) in the long run, then it was not for me. Doing this really reshaped my mindset on a lot of things in a wonderful way. A part of me thinks that this is a common use and experience of peace that others have too. However, even though I often have the feeling or state of peace, there are times I feel like it’s so far out of reach and I don’t know how to get it back.

John 14:27 

After receiving the word, I got straight to it. I went on my patio and Googled “verses that are about peace”. Immediately, John 14:27 jumped off the screen at me. The ladder part of John 14 is Jesus talking to the disciples about what life is going to look like with Holy Spirit being in the picture after His death:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  

I would say even though this is a common verse, I knew that sometimes even verses we think we know well can be oversimplified and we can miss something good. I used the Strong’s to search what that original word and definition of “peace” is in the Greek (since John is in the New Testament and it was originally written in Greek). Here’s what it said: 

eirēnē (G1515) – from a primary verb “to join”; peace (literally or figuratively); by implication prosperity: one, peace, quietness, rest + set at one again. 

The thing that immediately caught my attention was that it is from a verb. An action. I searched the English definition.  

peace– freedom from disturbance; tranquility  

I noted that this definition was said to be a noun because it is thought of as a “state or feeling”, which is all I’ve ever known it to be. I Googled “peace as a verb” thinking it would come up with something, but there was nothing, just nouns and informal english uses like “peace out” as a verb. Something clicked for me.

How our experience can change when we have to think of peace as a verb instead of a noun/state. 

Looking at the definitions, they aren’t too far off. Quietness and rest & free of disturbance and tranquility sound about the same to me, but the intent behind using a verb and a noun is different.

For those of you that also don’t know, I am in school to become a therapist, and I truthfully cannot stand when people express feelings of doubt, anxiety, or fear and their only response is “pray about it” or “read your Bible” with no follow up. A part of me feels like this is a verse that could be thrown at them with the expectation that it’s supposed to magically help and bring that “state of peace” knowing that Jesus gave us His version of constant and consistent peace. Don’t hear what I’m not saying, because obviously this verse holds something great, but using our English definition probably isn’t going to cut it when we expect to just supernaturally receive God’s state of peace after reading (stay with me).  

Eirēnē comes from the word “to join”, which to me is so much more helpful to know. I believe, that this is the key to learning how to access Jesus’s peace. Like Jesus talks about in John 14, as Christians, we have Holy Spirit within us that is able to pretty much be our supernatural telephone to God that helps us listen to Him and communicate with Him, and at the same time is it literally Jesus’s spirit inside of us as well, acting as our Mediator. This is still a crazy concept to me (in a positive, thought provoking, grateful, beautiful way).

Sitting on the definition “to join”, I imagined two arms coming together, one reaching from earth (us) and the other coming from Heaven (Jesus) into a woven embrace, becoming one– which also is in the definition. Using that word picture, imagine one hand is us: intentionally and actively seeking and reaching out for Jesus’s peace; and Holy Spirit: guiding us to Him, which is the other hand. When we finally touch, He not only freely gives it to us, but this is also a picture of us literally fusing together as one, allowing us to be overwhelmed and embodied by His peace, which is no longer our own. Imagine how we would walk through our day knowing we having access to this.

I believe peace is one of the most sought after things in this world, all the way from world peace to personal peace, and maybe our western version of it being a state of mind you’re lucky to have when you’re free of all anxiety is what has made us believe that it is tricky to get, because whose life is consistently free of anxiety? I think sometimes we pray for God to give us peace in a quick mini prayer in our heads when we get stressed, but we don’t always actively (verb) pursue it. If we actively pursued and intentionally asked for Jesus’s peace, maybe we would walk through our days a little differently knowing we don’t have to wait for it to come, but it’s actually ours to freely grab. 

If it’s this simple, why is it so hard to receive sometimes?

Common times of having the feeling or being in a state of peace could be felt after making a decision you felt good about, or maybe checking off your to-do list and being able to watch TV without concern of something not getting done. Peace seems to be a feeling that could even be seen as an unconscious mental reward to ourselves after doing something hard after something finishes. I pose the thought, that perhaps we have conditioned ourselves to believe that receiving peace is conditional or it must be earned. It can’t be that easy to just reach up and grab it… can it? I have laundry, and homework, and work all day, and grocery shopping to do, and photos to edit, and… Maybe I ask this question of “why is it so hard to receive peace during tough times if it’s so simple?” as a charge to do some reflecting (myself included). Maybe we make it too complicated. We’re the problem, not God ignoring our prayer request (also spoiler alert: He already gave peace to us, why are we asking again?).

Reminder, Jesus’s peace is the same one that was present during the storm. The same feeling He was experiencing when He spoke to it to be still. Reminder, that is the peace you have access to during your own storms. Accessing this peace isn’t passive, and it’s not only accessible during calm parts of our life, it’s actually mainly needed during times that it’s not. When times that anxiety is driving the boat.

Thoughts?

These are all new thoughts to me that I would love to unpack more. If you have any thoughts or questions that spark conversation, or even if this was helpful, I would love to hear it all. I am not an expert on doing this all the time, and I definitely get trapped in anxiety from time to time. Who knows, maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but this is something that has given me a lot of peace (state 😉) knowing that embodying Jesus’s personal version of peace is at my fingertips.