Peace relates to priorities.
January 30, 1982
God, who is in heaven and with whom we also reside, blesses each of you and gives you God’s presence, a presence through strength and a sense of love and peace.
God wishes that you understand more about the meaning of peace and its application to your lives. The word “peace” has so many connected meanings with ideas that are to some degree of little importance, for with God there is a peace which does not limit itself to lack of war, lack of disagreements, lack of misunderstanding, lack of impatience, or any other number of meanings. The peace that God speaks of is perhaps best understood as an act of faith, a feeling of connectedness, a feeling of intimate contact with all that God is. There may be a war raging out of your control, but still you are at peace. You may have a strong disagreement with another over an issue great or small, but still be at peace. You may feel discouraged or frustrated or impatient with some aspect of your life, but still you may be at peace.
It seems paradoxical that you can be at peace but at the same time feel torn in so many directions. You have all heard of accounts where people have faced death but been at peace. That passing may not be due to causes of health but through forces imposed upon them, and yet they are at peace. What is this peace? How does it function in your lives and what is its meaning to each of you?
As we have said, peace can be a feeling of closeness to God, God’s presence, but what does that really imply? In earlier communions with you, God has emphasized the importance of structuring or ordering your life’s priorities. When we speak of peace, we speak of peace as it relates to that which is your highest priority. If what is important in your lives is based upon the burning desire to be one spiritually with God in your daily lives, then the peace which God so readily offers is that which affects the most important elements or activities in your life, that top priority. If it is truly an important focal point in your lives, then that which is lower in importance must by nature have less influence on you. You may love God and wish to be a part of God. But doing so does not mean that you will never have disagreements or frustrations or matters causing emotional or physical pain. It is only by focusing your attention to that which is of greatest importance that those other matters become less vital and have diminished influence upon you.
The path that God wishes you to travel upon does not resemble a child’s perception of a storybook nature, a path of sunshine and all smiles with no problems. That is certainly not realistic and does not afford you the opportunities for growth— growth spiritually and growth in your relationships with others. All that afflicts life is therefore essential, but God’s sense of peace is an approach to that which is your highest priority.
When you pray for peace, you pray for wider vision. You pray for a greater perspective of God and of your function within the view of God. That kind of perception, that perspective which has widened, is the essence of what God means by peace. If you can see an entire woods and recognize that it is essentially healthy and green and growing, you will not be so disturbed when some aspect of that woods is destroyed. It does not mean you don’t care, but it means that you see the whole as more important than the individual parts.
What is important in your lives is your growth, your total growth, spiritually and personally. You view that growth from a distance, not from a daily view. It is one which is observed over time. You have a day which goes well, and you have a day which is not so satisfying. You have a day in which you are filled with health and one which is not so comfortable. But if you see yourself as gaining, if you see yourself as being enlarged according to what is important, your perception of God and your action based on that perception, then those times of seeming frustration, those times of apparent nonmotion, are but instants. They are not of everlasting quality. When you recognize that relationship, you will find yourself greatly freed from quick anxiety and quick anger, for that which causes anxiety and anger in the long run is not of great importance, and therefore you achieve a peace despite what you experience.
The ordering of your lives, the setting of priorities, therefore, is vitally important, for it not only affects the continued development of your souls, but it greatly colors your view of life around you. If you live in a country of great suffering, it is easy to lose your sense of peace. It is easy to become so wrapped up in the trials of a transitory nature that you fail to view progression of life as a whole.
Missionaries who work with those greatly less fortunate than you have a vision of something of a quality, of a direction of life different from that which is around them. How they serve that perspective varies so much from individual to individual. Those that are successful are missionaries who in some way perceive life in its total experience and work toward progress as a total experience. There are many who view such life in their small details and therefore measure their success by progress made in such small details. Their priorities, nevertheless, are much different from many with whom they work, but the potential for aid, for meaningful contact and influence, is enormous for those who view life and the progress of life in the greater perspective. They are able to live with great peace despite physical hardships and emotional pressures beyond the understanding of many.
Peace, therefore, influences the way you respond to life around you. You must be concerned about the application of peace within your lives. That concern is exercised first of all through the setting of those priorities. When you feel you are unable to find peace within your daily lives, the problem is not with God but with your priorities. If you sense God’s presence no matter what, then you are assured that you have ordered your life in an appropriate manner, sympathetic with the vibrations of God’s presence.
There are many ways of governing your lives and for one person a certain priority system may be appropriate, but it may not be the best ordering for another. Nevertheless, focusing first of all on God can assure you that the basic priority, the sense of peace will prevail. By focusing on God, one may choose service to others as of greatest importance. Another may choose scriptural study. Another may choose to serve through teaching—teaching God’s word, teaching in a manner which reflects God’s presence. These are all varying responses, but they are focused, they are centered, they find their motivation from the burning desire to be at one spiritually with God. When you are unsure of balance, look to your feelings of peace as an indication of proper perspective.
Your expressed interest in finding ways to put together God’s teachings as received in this manner is both appropriate and possible. We feel that the time is not quite ripe to view a completion in the near future. It is a long procedure and it must be pursued with patience and a desire to make clear to others what we teach without any sense of deadline or target for completion. If such a project is begun, those who work with it will know when enough has been collected. There is no end to that which we teach. There is no final chapter. It is a book, if you will, which contains much to be learned even after you have joined us on this side of your lives. If you wish to proceed, the direction of the book will become apparent in time and its purposes will become clearer. For that reason we say that it is appropriate and possible, but it must not be arbitrary in its scope or sense of time.
God is aware of your many concerns: concerns for family and friends, concerns for yourselves. As we so often say and feel motivated to assert again, God has answered your prayers. God has answered them before they were uttered. As you pray your concerns to God with one another, the prayers of each in the group give great strength to the impulses of healing which are directed through God toward others. We encourage you to be ever more open in specific concerns that are important to each of you, for the prayers which are offered will then be offered by many and the power of those prayers will be multiplied many fold.
God sends peace to you. It is with you and for you to grasp. It is with you constantly giving strength. Be open to it, and if you fail to find it, change what is important in your lives, for it is God and God alone who provides that peace which can be so much a part of your entire lives. It is a gift. It is not even necessary to ask for peace, for God offers it to each just as you offer your love to a child without being asked. We send you God’s warmth and love, and we bask in the peace which is a part of all of our lives.
Amen.