Peace, As Jesus Gives It

It is a sweet and safe place to be able to figuratively curl up in the arms of Jesus when you are hurting and believe you have no where else to turn. (Many men among you readers have likely already recoiled at that comment, anti-masculine as it appears. But let’s remember that Jesus was a very masculine man, a carpenter, a strong man, a tender warrior.) Life frequently – daily sometimes – present conundrums of the mind, heart and circumstances that no person can solve. You can’t get your own mind and actions to follow His will, it seems, much less someone else’s! Get two or three problems spinning around you in a row, and you’re reduced to desperation.

And there is Jesus. Too often that’s what it takes to get us to Him – major ‘trouble,’ stuff we couldn’t manage ‘on our own’ (as if we’re supposed to manage anything on our own!). So is it any wonder He allows it?

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.” – John 14:27

He leaves us HIS peace. How big is His peace? Total. Beyond thorough. Nothing is ‘worrying Him’ (our sin does grieve Him, however). Nothing can shake Him. He sees the past, present and future (in fact, so completely that He does not function in ‘time’ as we know it), and He holds it all. That’s pretty big peace!

He contrasts that peace with ‘peace’ the world gives. How does the world give it’s (false) peace? Through distraction (sin, habit, or a combination), drugs, man’s effort to ‘eliminate’ (divorce, abandon, etc.) the problem. Satan keeps feeding us the same old substititues! You would think w would catch on!

You may think, ‘I don’t know how to run to Jesus, to curl up in His arms!’ There is no ‘technique.’ Be still. Speak (in your mind or with your mouth) your fears, concerns, feelings, etc. with raw honesty. Focus your mind on Him. Ask Him to comfort and speak back. Be still long enough to get it out, and be still long enough to hear. Ask the Holy Spirit to do His job(s): a) comfort; b) counsel; c) intercede for you; d) bring to your mind the Truth Jesus taught.

It will work, every time. As some prescriptive applications say in the instructions: “Repeat as often as necessary.”