The Nine · Galatians 5:22 · Week 3
In week three of The Nine: What Everyone Wants at Christian Life Church in Bensalem, PA, Christie English, wife of Pastor Mark English for 35 years, preaches on the third fruit of the Spirit: peace. Through her own family’s hardest seasons, she shows that peace isn’t about what’s happening around us. It’s about what’s settled within us.
Key Highlights
What to Remember
Peace isn’t about what’s happening around you. It’s about what’s settled within you.
Jesus doesn’t just give peace. He is our peace.
God’s peace doesn’t remove the problem. It guards your heart in it.
Peace isn’t found in control. It’s found in surrender.
Galatians 5:22–23
Hard Is Not Hopeless
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Galatians 5:22–23
Single life, married life, high school, a new career, retirement: living for God in this world is hard. Like Esther walking into the king’s presence saying, “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16), we sometimes have to do hard things. But there is a difference between hard and hopeless. What happens when life isn’t just difficult, but chaotic, and you can hardly breathe under the pressure?
- Love is the foundation
- Joy is the strength
- Peace is what holds life together when everything falls apart
When you don’t know what else to do, stand.
A Family’s Story
Peace in the Hardest Places
At 24, Christie and Mark were four years into marriage, serving in their dream youth ministry role in Florida, with an 18-month-old daughter. Then Mark was diagnosed with cancer. For three weeks they didn’t know if it was treatable. Later, radiation poisoning left them afraid they would lose him.
After his surgery, Christie kept checking on him, wanting to make everything better. Mark gently told her, “This place is just between Jesus and me.” She closed the door, knelt in the living room, and poured out her heart until every fear met a wave of God’s peace. She prayed, “Jesus, if You want to take him, I’m thankful for the years I’ve had,” and let go of her own will.
“I will trust my God in the hard places.” It’s a decision.
We can’t create our own peace. Jesus truly is more than enough.
Mark is now cancer-free after two battles with cancer. But not every prayer was answered the way they hoped. At 30, Christie gave birth to their second daughter, Hannah. A hole in her heart had starved her lungs of oxygen. After a life flight through a Florida lightning storm and a successful heart surgery, Hannah went to be with Jesus after seven days.
In the hospital hallway, as rain began to fall gently against the windows, Mark wrapped his arms around Christie and they sang the worship song “In the Presence of Jehovah” over and over, until they could breathe, until they could stand.
God gives and He takes away, but He was the same God in both places.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), offering His peace.
They had to fight for peace, taking every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). They chose to close the door on anxiety, hopeless grief, and blame, and to focus on the Prince of Peace and His past faithfulness. Like hymn writer Horatio Spafford, they could say, “It is well with my soul.”
Ephesians 2:14 · Isaiah 9:6
Jesus Is Our Peace
Biblical peace isn’t simply the absence of conflict, a better job, more money, or perfect children. When love is present and joy is growing, they produce a life marked by peace.
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.”
Ephesians 2:14
Paul doesn’t only say Jesus gives peace; he says Jesus is our peace. Jesus isn’t a vending machine that hands out peace like parade candy. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). When you’re overwhelmed by school, work, a health crisis, or broken relationships, you don’t need a feeling. You need Jesus.
Christie shared that during one crisis her prayer closet was the shower, where she cried out the name of Jesus. Invite Him into your storm. He’s okay with messy.
Romans 5:1 · 2 Corinthians 5:18–19
Peace Starts with Being Right with God
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:1
Before we can experience any other kind of peace, we need peace with God. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, the hostility between us and God was removed. We are no longer enemies but beloved sons and daughters.
And God has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). Peace is both personal, what God has done for you, and purposeful, what God now does through you. We carry it into our workplaces, homes, and families.
When one of their daughters faced a painful spiritual attack, she stood firm: “This is not me. I know who I am in Christ.”
You can’t experience the peace of God until you are at peace with God and know whose you are.
Philippians 4:6–7
Peace Settles Your World
“Do not be anxious about anything … And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6–7
“Guard” is a military term: to stand watch over and protect from intrusion. God’s peace doesn’t remove the problems. It guards our hearts in them. Something inside you is being protected.
In a Florida hurricane, the outer bands are destructive, but in the eye of the storm there is calm.
You can have chaos around you and still have calm within you.
Many people live without stability, driven by pressure and controlled by anxiety. Peace gives you a settled center. What is robbing you of peace?
Ephesians 2:10
Peace Frees You from Comparison
One of the greatest enemies of peace is comparison, and it’s alive and well even in church.
- Trying to be like someone else
- Keeping up with the Joneses
- Trying to meet everyone’s expectations
- Constantly proving ourselves
- Living up to expectations from long ago, even from people no longer living
You are God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). Rest in who He made you to be.
Peace begins when you stop trying to be someone else. If Christ is being formed in us, peace should be growing in us.
Luke 22:42
Peace in Your Gethsemane
Every believer faces a Garden of Gethsemane. Facing the cross, Jesus asked His closest friends to pray, and they fell asleep.
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Luke 22:42
Jesus prayed this three times (Matthew 26:39–44). It wasn’t one quick prayer. Each time He returned to the Father and surrendered again: “Not my will, but Yours.”
His peace came when He surrendered His will.
Am I surrendering my will to access the peace of God in my life?
Maybe you’re in your own Gethsemane right now, and the pain is intense. You don’t have to carry it alone. Invite Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to take up residence in your life. One step at a time, one breath at a time, you will see Him part the waters of confusion and struggle. Are you known at home and at work as a person of peace?
Questions About This Message
Biblical Peace Explained
What is biblical peace?
Biblical peace isn’t simply the absence of conflict or better circumstances. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), a settled center within us that comes from being right with God and trusting Him, even when life is chaotic.
What does it mean that Jesus is our peace?
Ephesians 2:14 says, “He Himself is our peace.” Jesus doesn’t just hand out peace; He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Real peace comes from inviting Jesus Himself into our situation.
What does Philippians 4:7 mean when it says peace will guard our hearts?
“Guard” is a military term meaning to stand watch and protect from intrusion. God’s peace doesn’t always remove our problems, but it protects our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus in the middle of them.
How can I find peace in grief or suffering?
Invite Jesus into your pain, take every anxious thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), and surrender your will to God. He is the same God whether prayers are answered the way we hoped or not, and He offers His peace in both places.
What did Jesus pray in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42). He prayed this three times, surrendering His will to the Father each time.
Invite Him in.
Surrender your will.
Stand.
He is our peace.
Life Group Discussion
Reflect and Respond
Use these questions to continue the conversation, reflect honestly, and let the message move beyond information into transformation.
You can have chaos around you
and still have calm within you.
