I’m embarrassed. I have no peace in my life and I know
better. After all, I preach that Christians should have peace when the world
offers no peace. So, why have I lost my peace?
The answer is simple. It is always the same answer. I
believed the language of this world. I believed its promises of providing
peace. I believed in the peace it offers and have found that it is no peace at
all.
The world says that peace can be had when you have enough
money or if people love you or if you
have your health or if anything you perceive that you lack is supplied. The
language of this world is never about the grace given on this day. It demands
future grace. It wants a world without any humbling moments. It wants peace on
the world’s terms. That means not having to answer to anyone. Not even God.
God, however, offers peace when we answer to Him. His peace
does not depend upon the circumstances in our lives. This peace does not need
more of anything more than the needs of the day and a dependence upon God to
supply everything needed for tomorrow. This is foreign to the language of the
world.
Does the world offer peace? Yes, without a doubt. But the
peace never lasts. It is like living on
cotton candy. The taste is sweet for the moment but you can’t seem to get enough
to live on. You must have more and more until you just get sick.
The lives of movie stars seem glamorous, but I wonder if
they have real peace. They have all the things the world promises as peace.
They have money, companionship, fame, love and can do whatever they would like
whenever they would like. I wonder if the causes they support are their efforts
to give their lives meaning. I wonder if this is their hope of peace.
But who am I to cast stones? I have admitted that I have no
peace even though I am a believer. I admit that I have fallen into the trap of
this world one more time. I have believed that the peace that this world
promises. I have been disappointed one more time. I don’t know why I keep
listening to the world.
So, I am back where I need to be. I am humbly coming to my
Lord and asking for His peace. The peace that doesn’t need enough money in the
bank for tomorrow. The peace that seeks Him and finds Him. The peace that
assures me that He is truly able to change everything into good things for me.
The peace that knows that He has a plan to prosper me and not do me harm. The
peace that says He will never leave me nor ever stop loving me. The peace that
says He will be with me for eternity.
Yes, now comes the peace that passes all understanding. I
wonder why I left it.
John 14:27 (ESV)
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
2 comments:
What a gift it is to realize that one is without peace. :)
When we feel unsettled and disrupted, inside and out--how good it is to realize that it is because we "lost our peace" by inadvertently relapsing into dependence on the world's definition of peace.
(Which, of late, has been preached from far too many pulpits, I might add. Really. You'd think that God's power to move on our behalf is constrained by who was elected president. But I digress.)
It's a gift to realize one's error, because it causes us to turn our full face on Jesus. Humbly, we return as a child with nothing to offer but our awareness of need and trust in His willingness to respond.
And, of course, He does. And we are, once again, able to take a deep breath and relax in His care.
How silly we get when we try to be so gown up and work it out ourselves.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you and give you PEACE.
Deb
In the movie Hook, Robin Williams plays a man who has forgotten he is actually Peter Pan. He finds the children he left behind when Tinkerbell transports him back to Neverland. One of the little boys looks at him curiously and finally says, "There you are Peter." I wonder if that is what Jesus says to me sometimes. I forget who I am and act like I never knew His language. Then, I come to my senses and He says, "There you are!" I was hidden from myself but I have been found once again. I can only have peace when I know who I am. I am His and all that He is to me is mine too. There is peace. (And even an election can't take away that peace because God didn't change who He is.)
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