Can you imagine Mary & Joseph’s reaction to an Angel of the Lord declaring that her child will be named Immanuel? It wasn’t the latest trendy name. For them it immediately meant “God with us”. God would come down and walk among us. Not because He could but because we couldn’t come to Him. He did this so we could experience His peace.
The Prince of Peace has most certainly come. But we tend to live like we disagree. I see hatred and violence in the world but not world peace. In our own lives, do we not feel the stress to perform, the expectation to succeed at it all? So why does it not feel like we have peace?
In a time when the disciples were distraught over losing Jesus, He reminded them of why He came to be with us.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” - John 14:27
Not any old peace.
He gives us His peace and He says it won’t look like anything the world would expect. Is it possible that we have just been searching for our own version of what we think peace should be? Un-attentive to what His peace may actually look like? If we are searching for our own answer, it is no wonder it all seems too much. If we have to work hard to maintain peace in the chaos, the heavy lifting of sustaining peaceful living, in the end it doesn’t sound like peace.
Jesus Christ offers us wholeness; complete peace. He leaves it with us when He goes to the Cross on our behalf, allowing us to never have to prove our worth. He gives us His peace through the power of the Holy Spirit, so we don’t have to muster up the ability ourselves. And He leaves you these words for dark moments when the world is too much. “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” “I have overcome the world.” To know Christ’s peace is to let it be His peace. If Christ has done everything for us should not our lives reflect that? Should we not live believing that? In order to truly receive His peace we first have to believe that He offers it to us.
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