Peace?

      Today the shopping comes to a halt. The gifts sit wrapped under the tree. Stockings are filled. Baking is finished. All the busy preparations for this one day cease. Today I sit amongst the tinsel and wrappings, and try hard to see through it all…to celebrate and focus on the One who made this day famous – Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

The hustle and bustle that leads up to this day can sometimes leave me asking, “Where is His peace?”

He said, “Peace I leave with you…”

      Do we know His peace in our lives? It seems like a radical idea, the concept of peace in a world filled with turmoil, and in lives filled with so much noise and busyness. The media reminds us daily that this world is unstable; governments are overthrown, wars break out, and closer to home - families fight, marriages split, and children rebel. The television commercials scream at us to fill our lives with “things” instead of Him. But our hearts cry out for peace…His peace. What did Jesus mean when He said He would give us His peace?

“My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”

      He made a point to tell us it is His own peace that He gives us, not the kind the world offers. The world’s peace is dependent on circumstances, the ups and downs of daily life or the things we have (or don’t have). His peace doesn’t come from without, it comes from within; the place within our souls where His Spirit dwells. It is His own peace because it comes from Him, inside us, His followers.

      When all the wrappings of life fall away, He is so much easier to see. His peace is known when we spend time seeking Him and being still in His presence…not rushing past Him to do the next thing or get the next thing.

“Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

      Worry, upset, fear, leave when we trust Him and rest in His peace. There will always be much to do, but He will never ask so much of us that we don’t have time for Him – the Prince of Peace.

 

      On this Christmas day may we celebrate Him, as the baby who arrived in the manger bed and began His journey to the cross. He was born to die, so that in Him we could fully live and know His peace.

 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” ~ Jesus

 John 14:27