Daily Devotions

Today our title given to Jesus is "The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6)

The word “prince” refers to the one who has full authority over something, or who is the ultimate source.

As the “prince of peace” Jesus is the one who is both the centre and origin of peace. The prophet Isaiah prophesied the Messiah to come would be the “prince of peace.” Jesus made peace and reconciled all things through his blood shed upon the cross. As a result, we can be justified and have peace with God.

During many an advent service the the familiar words of Isaac 9:6 will be read or sung as part of the annual rendition of Handle’s Messiah, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Gordon McDonald tells this story: “A Nigerian woman who is a physician at a great teaching hospital in the United States who came out of the crowd to say something kind about the lecture he had just given. She introduced herself using an American name. 

‘What’s your African name?’ McDonald asked. She immediately gave it to him, several syllables long with a musical sound to it. 

‘What does the name mean?’ He wondered. 

She answered, ‘It means “Child who takes the anger away.”’ 

When he inquired as to why she would have been given this name, she said, ‘My parents had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they defied the family opinions and married anyway. For several years they were ostracised from both their families. Then my mother became pregnant with me. And when the grandparents held me in their arms for the first time, the walls of hostility came down. I became the one who swept the anger away. And that’s the name my mother and father gave me.’”

Jesus came as our Prince of Peace to bring us wholeness, perfect unity between us and God, harmony among creation and a victorious sense of well-being. Jesus Christ is the only reason we can truly live peacefully with God and others.

The peace Jesus brings is one that is beyond comprehension. It is a peace that comes from knowing that God has everything well in hand, even when it doesn’t look like it. It is a sense of well-being, knowing you are perfectly safe in the middle of the storm because you have something beyond what is visible to anchor you. It is knowing that you are part of the an unshakable Kingdom where you are safe, loved and abounding with grace. This peace comes from knowing your identity is secure in Christ and your destiny is sure.

Perhaps we should pray,

Wilt Thou pitifully enter,

Son of Man, and lay Thy head?

Enter, then, O Christ most holy;

Make a Christmas in my heart;

Make a heaven of my manger:

It is heaven where Thou art. Amen

George Stringer Rowe (b. 1830)