Since the beginning of time, mankind has craved peace! When Adam and Eve came upon the body of their son Abel, slain by his brother Cain, they no doubt longed for peace. The peculiar thing about peace is this; man has always longed for the time when peace was in his life––yet peace has so seldom reigned in the hearts of men, it is doubtful that what he longs for has ever really been there in the first place. That which he craves is so foreign to his existence that, perhaps, the longing is more of a whim than it is a dream.
A former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India have come up with some startling information: Since 3600 B.C. the world has known only 292 years of peace! During this period there have been 14,351 wars, large and small, in which 3.64 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed would pay for a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Since 650 B.C. there have also been 1,656 arms races, only 16 of which have not ended in war. The remainder ended in the economic collapse of the countries involved. (Source Unknown.)
(Mark Brunner, The 100% Solution, 5/17/2005, https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/20757/holy-spirit-attributes-by-mark-brunner)
Point: In the last 5,400 years the world may have known peace for only a little over 5% of the time. And the odds are that most of that 5% was infused with thoughts and plans for disturbing the peace. Ironically, it has probably been man’s misplaced longing for earthly peace that has for so long mired him in a lack of finding it. A longing for earthly peace has often proved the catalyst for the blooming of war since in that longing God is so often relegated to second place. Only the knowledge that true peace, found only in Christ Jesus, gives real peace. This is the peace that “passes all understanding,” the gift of the Holy Spirit, which puts our hearts and minds at peace 100% of the time.