Peace

Peace.

God’s peace.

Peace with God.

I’m normally sceptical about receiving a ‘word from the Lord’ or ‘something put on my heart.’

But I keep coming back to the word ‘peace.’

I need peace.

I have peace.

Peace with God.

Peace with my family and friends.

My nation is not at war.

So what am I looking for?

Inner peace?

How does one get that?

Paul writes, applying the fact Jesus has died, taking our sins on the cross and giving us His perfection: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

So I have peace with God, because I am ‘justified.’

Justified.

Just-if-I’d never sinned.

Just if-I’d always kept.

That is peace beyond belief.

So what peace am I looking for?

“Be still my soul, and know this peace” says a good song.

Emotionally these days I am all over the place. I’m up one minute.

Down the next.

At the slightest of things!

I need to keep coming back to this peace.

This peace I’ve never lost, but peace I keep forgetting.

What can encourage me?

As John says: “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:19-20.

My heart condemns me.

My emotions bounce up and down more often than I can count.

But God is greater than my heart.

He knows me more than I know myself.

And he still loves me!

That’s peace!

To calm His anxious disciples, Jesus assures them of their faith-union with Him, their status before Him in the Trinity, and His soon return.

He has over come the world. And so we who believe too overcome (1 John 5:5)

 

So how do I remember this peace? Some words from Paul that we say at the end of many church services.