5 Signs Our Inner Peace Might Be a Deceptive Calm

Many people think they have peace with God. Instead, their inner peace flows from a deceptive heart. There is a peace that passes all understanding, and it is one of the most blessed aspects of the Christian life. The foundation of this peace is the cross of Jesus, where our sins find forgiveness, and the wrath of God is satisfied. The moment we trust in the atoning work of Christ, we are at peace with God objectively. From there, that truth begins to give us peace subjectively as God sheds his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

The problem is many people believe they are at peace with God, but because of their sins, they are still at enmity with him. Though they experience no distress at the thought of God, it is not the peace of Christ they are experiencing. Scripture tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Here are five telltale signs of a deceptive inner peace.

1. Peace Without Joy in Jesus

If you find yourself at peace about your spiritual state before the Lord, but there is no joy in Christ Jesus, you are experiencing the ease of a deceitful heart. Jesus is the only source of peace with God. Our enmity with God is the result of our sinfulness, and only Jesus and his work on the cross can save us. Jesus is the only source of peace with God, and if we think we have peace but do not rejoice in him, we are deceiving ourselves.

2. Trusting in our Own Merit

We do not have peace with God when we think God approves of us because of our character or good deeds. This confidence in our goodness is a sure sign that we are experiencing the calm of a spiritually dead soul. Even if we claim the merits of the blood of Jesus but believe our justification in Christ is a mixture of his death and our works, scripture says we are lost. We are saved by faith apart from works (Rom. 3:28); it is entirely the merit of Christ that brings us into a right relationship with him. If we add our own righteousness, we condemn ourselves because our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

3. The Things of God are Barren and Dry

The third sign that reveals our peace is not of God is if we are uninterested in the things of God. If we have no hunger for the word of God, and when we try to feed upon it, it is like ashes in our mouths, we are in trouble. If we can find more joy in an obscene Netflix series than a time of prayer and Bible reading, something is seriously amiss with our spiritual condition.

4. Peace That is Easily Disturbed by Life’s Troubles

If life’s calamities have sent us into a tailspin of despair, the peace we are experiencing may not have been born of God. Peace born of the flesh trembles when the things of the flesh shake. Peace born of the Spirit of God looks to God himself, who does not move, even when the earth gives way, and the mountains fall into the sea (Psalm 46:2). There will be times of lament, sorrow, grief, and distress in the life of the Christian, but though we may be perplexed, we will not despair (2 Cor. 4:8).

5. Death Will Be Fierce

If we are reading this, we have not yet experienced this last one, but if worldly peace is not replaced with true peace with God, our deathbed will be a harrowing experience. Only the believer strengthened by the Holy Spirit can say, “Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:55)” A peace founded on the things of the world and confidence in the flesh will die when the flesh begins to perish.

As you consider this list, was any of this true of you? If so, it can only mean one of two things. 1. We are not children of God, and we need to confess our sinfulness to the Lord and trust entirely in the merits of Jesus and the work he did on our behalf. Or 2. We are believers, but our hearts are still trying to find hope and peace in this life. We must grow to be more spiritually minded. If we do not, we may be saved, but we will suffer significant loss as our carnal works are burned up on the day of judgment. We will be saved but as one through fire (1. Corinthians 3: 15).

None of us are without sin. It is time for all of us to draw up under the wings of our Savior and find joy in our salvation as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. It is the only way to be at peace with God. The joy that flows from it will make him more precious to us than anything this world can offer, and life’s storms will not be able to take our peace. Finally, on the day we die, death will not have its sting, and the grave will not have its victory.

-D. Eaton