My peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you

I was thinking this morning, that I wouldn’t need His peace if circumstances did not conspire to rob me of it. But that is an unrealistic expectation, since ”In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). And there are some things cropping up right now, that I would rather not deal with. And I would rather not deal with them because doing so threatens to take away my peace. But not dealing with what needs to be dealt with, is dysfunctional!

The verse at the head of this post from John 14:27 continues with “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This, together with the command “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:6) that I read recently, was rattling around in my head, and I felt I was being told what to do in no uncertain terms. In particular, His peace, the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), is freely available, but it is not automatic. I needed to appropriate it!

And so I did. And it started with a choice, it started with a prayer, and it started with meditating on what the Scripture says about His peace. First of all I have peace with God, and I am justified freely by his blood (Romans 5:1). So I am secure in Him! Secondly, being so justified the peace of God, the peace that God so freely gives, is available when I choose to respond in faith to the happenstances of life (Philippians 4:4-7). Feel free to join me in the following prayer this morning:-

Lord, we need Your peace, and we need Your courage. We choose to let Your peace rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15). We choose to trust You moment by moment, that You will show us what we need to do at the time we need to do it. And we thank You that we don’t have to do any of this alone, for You have promised never to leave us nor forsake us, and You are with us to deliver us (Deuteronomy 31:6; Psalm 50:15). We thank You, and we give You the glory in Jesus Name Amen