Peace evades me so often. Or at least it feels like it. Somehow, that is how I think of it at times. But in reality, it’s the other way around. I evade peace.
I don’t do it consciously or on purpose. At least not really.
Peace is a result of being united with the Lord, of praying continuously and rejoicing and giving thanks in all circumstances.
But doing that seems to be the much harder work. Somehow, it seems much easier to just chase after all those worrying thoughts, to fret over things that may never be reality in my life, and to think about tomorrow rather than focus on today.
Somehow, the could be’s and what if’s and should have’s in this world are much easier to dwell on than the Lord. And yet by doing so, by giving into the flesh and the comfort of this world, allowing my body to get all its desires satisfied, I think I will attain peace.
That’s a lie.
This world, and all its comforts, will never bring peace.
Instead, only Jesus does.
He said in John 14:27: 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.
It struck me today, as I tried to follow my daily habits of memorizing Bible verses I fail at more often than not, and I typed this verse into my phone: that little world in the last sentence that gets repeated twice.
‘Let’.
It has been right there this whole time and yet somehow, it is the first time I seem to have truly noticed it.
It does not say ‘your hearts will not be troubled’, it says ‘let not your hearts be troubled’. As in, there is an active action we need to take so that our hearts will not be troubled, so that we won’t be afraid.
I know, I know, you may think that it’s all over the Bible, that active action. You’re right, it is.
And yet somehow it never struck me as deeply as today that, whether our hearts are anxious, fearful, cowardly, and troubled is actually up to us. Completely. It is up to us to be connected to Jesus, in fellowship with Him, at any time of the day, and focus on Him and His promises rather than the cares and troubles of this world. It is up to us to focus on the Word rather than focus on the many words in this world, constantly distracting and entertaining us.
Jesus has already left us His peace. He gives it to us. But we need to do our part so that we truly inherit all that He is promising us, and not what the world gives us.
Through my actions, through focusing on the wrong things and doing things that are not in God’s good purposes for my life, I evade peace.
May this lesson sink deep into the depths of my soul and be written on the tablets of my heart.
Lord, give me the grace to focus on you at all times, to stay in the discomfort and not comfort myself, so that ultimately, I may be comforted by the One and only who can ever truly comfort me. So that I will not let my heart be troubled or afraid. Amen.
