Real Peace [eBook]

What We Long for and Where to Find It

Peace is possible.

We all experience stress, anxiety, grief, conflict, depression and despair—pain that causes us to cry out for peace. Taking on these common yet critical hardships, seasoned pastor and biblical counselor Andy Farmer shows us where to find and how to experience true, lasting peace—peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with ourselves.

Andy Farmer (MA, Westminster Theological Seminary) has been serving as a pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, for 20 years. He is also on the council board of the Biblical Counseling Coalition and assists Sovereign Grace Ministries in strategic planning and training for church planting and care. Farmer is the author of The Rich Single Life.

“Peace, if it comes at all, tends to come in little pieces—the job is stable for now, the kids are healthy today, friends still hang out with you—and sometimes I can settle for those scraps. Thanks, Andy, for showing me how I can honor God by aiming for peace that is much deeper. You let those words of Jesus linger in my soul, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.’”
—Edward T. Welch, Counselor and Faculty Member, Christian Counseling & Education Foundation

“There are many books I can recommend on finding peace with God. There are far fewer I can recommend on experiencing the peace of God. Real Peace is a book I highly recommend for real people facing real trouble in a really messed up world. It paints gospel-centered portraits, explaining how to apply John 16:33 in the midst of our struggles with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and conflict. Reading Real Peace pointed me not to a system, but to a person—The Prince of Peace.”
—Robert W. Kellemen, Executive Director, The Biblical Counseling Coalition; author, Equipping Counselors for Your Church

“This is a book about being whole in a broken world, about finding rest amidst chaos within and without. I actually felt peace as I read it, making it a perfect book to read on vacation or on a coffee break in the middle of a stressful day. Filled with charm, personality, and wisdom, Real Peace offers solace to restless Christians and invites non-Christians to know the God of peace.”
—Mike Wilkerson, author, Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry

“We all long for peace in our hostile, chaotic, and seemingly meaningless world. Why? Our souls were created for peace—not mere emotion or experience, but through an abiding relationship with the Prince of Peace. My friend Andy Farmer serves the church and the world well through his deeply thoughtful, winsome, and gospel-orienting work. Through its sociological and soul-revealing insights drawn from the wells of Scripture, Real Peace offers us hope that ‘draws the poison of self and despair’ out of our peace-robbing struggles. Such hope is found only through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Real Peace is a must read for everyone as we are called into the radical mission of the gospel.”
—Robert K. Cheong, Pastor of Care and Counseling, Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky; author, God Redeeming His Bride: A Handbook for Church Discipline; contributor, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling