Isaiah 48:18 (NIV) If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.

If there is something that everyone is looking for, it's peace. Life without peace is painful and difficult. You can have a nice family, a very good job, and a lot of material possessions but if you don't have peace, then you can't enjoy any of it. Because people can't seem to find peace, they try to create their own peace. That's what substance abuse is all about. It's about people trying to drown their sorrows by escaping reality through drugs or alcohol. The problem is that those things that give you a temporary release will cost you your life in the end.

People also try to find peace through pleasure, but that, too, misses the mark and does not come close to giving you peace. Some look for it in relationships, only to find that many times relationships are accompanied by hurt, discord and strife. Instead of peace, they many times lead to anxiety. But how can we expect peace in our relationships when we don't have peace ourselves and the person that we are with doesn't have it either?

There is only one road to true peace, and it begins with peace with God. We get peace with God by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace and with Him in your life, you are on the right track. Then comes living in obedience to God's Word, which is what the verse above is talking about. The Word of God is the Lord's love letter to us marking out the way to peace. It's a peace that nothing can disturb. It's peace like a river when you are living in harmony with truth. Living according to God's truth (which is the only truth that there is) leads to peace deep within your soul. If you have ever been on the banks of a gently flowing river, you will get a glimpse of the peace that God promises and delivers when we surrender our lives to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to live in us so that we can have the power to live in obedience to God's commands. When we do, we not only receive peace like a river, but it will also be well with our souls. Receive the peace that God offers. Let peace like a river be yours here on this peace-starved earth until we go to be with Jesus forevermore.

Pastor Joey Vazquez