“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” –John 14;27
We need peace. The daily headlines scream of this need. We look out at our world, and we see wars, terrorism, crime, and political battles. But the problem is not just "out there." We look inside at our hearts, and we see anxiety, hurry, and conflict. If someone could perform a spiritual MRI on you, they would probably find evidence of a stressed-out soul that is tied up in knots.
Jesus makes it clear that peace is a state of the heart. He contrasts the condition of peace with the condition of a troubled heart. Jesus wants you to know that even when your circumstances are in chaos, your heart can be at peace.
Jesus wants to give you a peace that is real even when the house is a wreck and company is on the way and the kids are screaming and the phone is ringing and the grass is too high and the bank balance is too low and the dog is chewing on every three dimensional object in the house. Jesus wants to give you peace that endures even when somebody you care about is angry with you. He wants to give you peace that survives even when unthinkable tragedy strikes from out of the blue. His peace is an inner strength that prevails in spite of the outer circumstances.
Jesus says that the enemy of peace is fear. As He offers us His peace, He tells us not to be afraid.
Peace and fear are like two different sets of glasses through which we look at the future. With fear glasses, we look ahead and see all the bad things that might happen: heartache, pain, and all sorts of gloom and doom. With peace glasses, we look ahead and recognize that Christ holds us no matter what comes. When we remember we are in His hands, fear becomes absolutely unnecessary, and we are filled instead with peace.
Jesus makes an obvious point in this week's verse that we could easily forget: peace is a gift. It is not something we achieve - it is something we receive. We don't attain it through strenuous effort or impressive intellect or super spirituality. We accept it as a free gift from Jesus. He gives it to those who walk with Him. It is part of the fruit of the Spirit - a natural consequence of a life connected to Him. We don't engineer our own peace - we let Jesus give us His.
Jesus doesn't just say he gives us any old peace - He promises to give us HIS peace. Wow! He wants to give us the same peace He has, and that is a lot of peace. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace. He wants us to have the same peace that allowed Him to sleep soundly on a boat in the midst of a storm. He wants us to have the same peace that allowed Him to speak the very words of this week's verse while He could hear boots hitting the path - the boots of the soldiers coming to arrest Him. He wants us to have the same peace that was with Him during His brutal crucifixion, allowing Him to pray for those who were causing His pain. Christ wants you to have His peace.
With Love,
Bro. Clayton
