My Peace I Give to You.

written by Eric R

My Peace I Give to You

"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."

At the end of Jesus' earthly life, He prepared His people by teaching about the future. He knew His people would be afraid and perplexed since they would miss Him physically after His ascension, and that was when He said, "I give my peace to you."

The term peace is hardly heard and experienced while humans live this earthly life. We hear about peace treaties and rest in peace messages. But what Jesus offered to us is His peace. What kind of peace did He have? It was an unshattered peace that made Him calm and composed despite knowing so very well about the kind of suffering, bloodshed, crucifixion on the cross, and death by exercising the ultimate torture. The reason for the peace of Jesus is He knew what His future would be.

We become anxious and perplexed and fear knowing not what the future has in store for us. If our trust is in the Creator God, if we have experienced salvation given to us by Jesus graciously by faith, we wouldn't be worried about our and our children's future. Such calm and composed peace is assured to us, too.

If we have the peace given by God, we will spread peace and joy around us. Our presence will make others happy. If we are the ones who bring unhappiness, peacelessness, and hostility, it is evident we don't have God-given peace in us. If we hate our friends, relatives, and neighbors on account of religious beliefs, we have piousness and are zealous for God but not the God-given peace.

God doesn't have partiality. Suppose we show partiality and look at people through the spectrum of religion, caste, and social status. In that case, we are not driven by God-given peace but by a fanatic religious attitude.

May God help us to have His peace.