Want Peace? Do This First.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to receive something… and then do absolutely nothing with it? Kids get presents and play with them for five minutes, then they sit untouched. It’s like a gym membership you don’t use or advice you agree with but never apply.

When it comes to peace, Scripture tells us that God has already given it through Jesus—the Prince of Peace. We’re told to pray for peace and live in peace, yet so many of us feel like life is constant chaos. Family tension. School pressure. Career uncertainty. Thoughts that won’t slow down. It feels like peace has been stolen.

But what if the issue isn’t that peace has been taken from you… but that you’re not doing much with what God has already given you? The peace of God isn’t just something you feel. It’s a way you live.

So the question becomes: Will I trust God with what I don’t know, and obey Him with what I do know?

In John 20, the disciples are locked in a room, overwhelmed with fear and failure. They abandoned Jesus. Denied Him. They are carrying guilt, shame, and regret. And what does Jesus do when He shows up? He doesn’t condemn them. He doesn’t interrogate them. He offers them peace.

“Peace be with you.”

He shows them His hands and His side—the proof that forgiveness has already been secured. They didn’t earn it. They didn’t ask for it. He simply gives it. And then, almost immediately, He connects that peace to forgiveness. As He sends them out, He tells them to forgive others.

Peace and forgiveness go hand in hand.

This isn’t isolated teaching. It’s a consistent pattern throughout Scripture. Jesus says in Matthew 6 that if we forgive others, we will be forgiven—but if we don’t, we won’t be. Paul echoes it in Colossians and Ephesians: forgive as the Lord forgave you.

If you want peace, you must release forgiveness.

At some point, we have to stop explaining this away and start living it. Many people spend years processing pain—and there’s a place for that—but never move toward forgiveness. And when forgiveness is withheld, peace is also withheld. 

When you refuse to forgive, you interrupt the flow of grace in your life. You’ve been forgiven again and again—more times than you can count. Yet when you hold onto someone else’s offense, you’re standing in the way of the very gospel that saved you.

Jesus brings this to the forefront in the Lord’s Prayer. Out of everything He could emphasize, He circles back to forgiveness. Not provision. Not temptation. Forgiveness.

Because forgiveness is the clearest evidence that grace has taken root in your life.

You can say the right things to God and still hold onto the wrong things toward others.

So here are the questions:

Who do you need to forgive?
What are you still holding against them?
Have you released it, or are you still trying to make them pay?
What would it look like to cancel the debt today?

There is a place for processing pain. But at some point, healing requires a decision to release forgiveness toward those who have hurt you. 

You don’t forgive because they deserve it. And you don’t forgive just because you’re tired of carrying it. You forgive because every person you struggle to forgive is made in the image of God and someone Jesus was willing to die for.

Just like you.

So forgive as the Lord forgave you. Release it.