Are you ready for this final week leading up to Christmas? Have you made your list and checked it twice?

As you prepare the gifts, consider how Christmas changes through the different stages of life. There are four stages we experience:

We believe in Santa Claus.

We don’t believe in Santa Claus.

We are Santa Claus.

We look like Santa Claus.

While Santa is the focus for so many, Jesus is truly the reason we celebrate this season. This week of devotionals will focus on the last title Isaiah gave to Jesus in Isaiah 9:6, “Prince of Peace.”

In English, the alliteration of “Prince” and “Peace” bring a resolution to our minds. We like how it sounds. In the original Hebrew, the Jews would have had the same sense. The title in Hebrew is “sar shalom.”

Sar in Hebrew means “ruler, leader, chief, or prince.” Sar looks and sounds similar in other languages as well.

Czar served historically as the “prince, ruler, leader” in Russia.

Kaiser is the Germanic term.

Caesar is the Latin term used for the Roman rulers.

The Jews longed for a ruler to bring safety, calm, and wholeness to their land. They longed for peace.

For so many of us, we long for peace. The stresses of life can overwhelm us. The uncertainty of life can drain us. Doubts, discouragement, and distractions can fill our lives. What we all need is peace. We need the Prince of Peace to rule in our lives.

Throughout the story of Christmas, many of the people involved were dealing with stress and fear.

Zechariah was “startled and gripped with fear.” (Luke 1:13)

Mary was “greatly troubled and wondered.” (Luke 1:29)

Joseph was encouraged “do not be afraid.” (Matthew 1:20)

The shepherds were “terrified.” (Luke 2:9)

Herod was “disturbed and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matthew 2:3)

Nothing is more peaceful than the sight of a sleeping baby. For all the fear and disturbance Gabriel’s announcement may have initially caused, God’s solution to bring peace was a baby. This was not any baby. This baby was God in the flesh who would bring peace to the hearts of all humanity. Of the 4,500 years of recorded human history, humans have waged over 10,000 battles against one another. Since the founding of our nation in 1776, there have only been twenty years we have not been at war or involved in a military conflict. We can put a man on the moon, but only Jesus can truly bring peace into our lives.

Nothing unnerves us quite like conflict. We long for peace in our homes, in our relationships, and in our lives. The same Prince of Peace that came two-thousand years ago is the same one who can bring peace to your life today.

Pray Today: Dear Lord, thank you for the peace you bring to my life. Help me to bring peace to the lives of people around me today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.