What an apparent oxymoron.  Striving for peace can carry the connotation that we must confront and defeat conflict.  This can lead to forcing peace on a situation which starts to look like the conflict it is supposed to replace.

Yet there is indeed a striving which goes on between our ears.  Or as some say getting that revelation from God to travel the 18″ north from our heart to our mind.

The peace of God is a fact.  In Him there is no strife or unrest,  His Kingdom is peace and joy and rest and we are ushered into that kingdom by virtue of the finished work of the cross.  The difficulty for us is that the notion of salvation by grace is so foreign to the world system we are born into that we must catch the revelation of it and make the conscious decision to accept it for ourselves. That is where we strive,  not to make it happen ourselves but to set aside all our preconceived notions of working our way up to heaven. 

We are already accepted in the beloved.  Fully atoned for, made righteous through no act of our own.  We are indeed already at peace with our Creator as far as He’s concerned, He’s merely waiting on us to make that realization and accept it as fact in our lives.