"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27 (NASB)
So often
we fail in having/experiencing peace where we have no control over a situation
or outcome. Yes, we believed in Jesus for our salvation and we have peace about
our sins and salvation, but as we grow, we find other areas of our life that we
withhold from God, maybe not intentionally, but withheld it is. How do we know
we do this? We are frantic, agitated, and have no peace and no rest. We
scramble trying to make “it” work or trying to change an outcome. We worry
about a person, a job, a home, anything really. This shows us we are not at
peace. It shows we have not given everything to God to take care of. We haven’t
entrusted that person, situation, or thing into His care wanting His perfect
will. Why? We are afraid and don’t trust God. We are afraid pain may be
involved-pain in our hearts. We are afraid God won’t give us what we want.
This
fear, this being afraid, does not come from God, but from Satan. He uses our
humanness to desire things knowing they contradict God’s perfect will for our
lives. Satan uses our human frailness of desire to lead us not to trust God
completely. He leans into us and we lean away from God. Fear becomes a resident
emotion. It stays until we trust God and give to Him that part of our lives-the
person, situation, or thing with which we wrestle for our own outcome. To grasp
the peace of God, we must let go of our desire for these finite things and
instead desire God, trust Him and hold onto Him. We should pray for the
strength to grasp the peace of God. God’s peace is everlasting and is not
fleeting like the peace the world gives. Getting that thing, conquering that
situation, or gaining that person’s trust, allegiance, and/or covenant gives
peace only for a time, not for eternity. Fear then will return. If we grasp
onto God by trusting Him in that situation instead of trying to take care of it
ourselves, then God’s peace given to us will carry us through as we trust Him
and follow Him with obedience.
Often it
seems easier to get the peace the world offers because we can work at it for
ourselves. The work ethic has taught us self-sufficiency. “Why ask God for
something I can do myself,” is often what we think. When we do this, we make
ourselves our god instead of seeking God’s will and letting Him provide what we
need and sometimes what we want. When we gain what we want through the actions
of our own hands, we have peace, but it doesn’t last. We realize too late we
didn’t seek God, trust Him, and get His peace. It seems hard to keep hold of
the trust in God that gives His peace. Our trust is imperfect; yet we say, “But
I trust Him, I trusted Him for my salvation. Doesn’t that mean I trust Him?”
Trust in God grows in us as we seek Him and His perfect will. God permits us to
make decisions. Those times of decision are where we can exercise trust in Him,
grow more like Christ, and gain peace.
How do we
do trust God more? How do we re-orient our minds so that we seek God first
instead of striving for ourselves to gain what we want? We must go back to the
time of our salvation and then walk through our memories recalling the times
God worked in our lives. These spiritual markers remind us of who God has been
for us, what characteristics of God we saw at work in each of those situations.
To trust God for our current situation(s), we must remember His love, grace, and
mercy that provided salvation for us. He still loves us and wants good for us.
Paul stated this same thing in Romans 8:28 when he said, “And we know that God
causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are called according to His purpose.”
As we
continue our walk through our memory garden of spiritual markers, we arrive at
a marker that reminds us of God’s power, might and dominion. That marker came
from the moment we recognized God created us with His creative power and provided
for and protected us with His mighty hand. He is greater and mightier than all
things created. That is when we also realized He is Ruler; He has dominion over
all. We realized we could trust Him to do what He said He would do. We realized
He would take care of all our needs. Now we must take that trust that comes
from believing these things and more. Don’t let it be hidden from our hearts
and minds. Receive God’s peace because of it. He is Lord over all. Nothing
defeats Him or surprises Him.
God
already has the plan to take care of our situations for which we thought we had
to strive. We must trust His heart and receive the peace He gives through His
indwelling Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus said to His disciples in John 14 He
would send His Spirit to teach and bring to remembrance all He said. The Holy
Spirit is the Helper. He will remind us of God’s truth.
Trusting
God and receiving His peace sounds easy when we step back to gain perspective.
That process of stepping back from our situation is the first step toward
peace. Our humanness gets in the way of seeing and/or obeying God and skews our
perspective if we don’t step back. When we step back, we realize we are not the
god of our lives. We realize we will not receive lasting peace if we seek our
own will. When we step back, we recognize God is bigger than our circumstance
and our desires. These do not define or limit Him. He is still Master and
defines and limits our situation. God provides the correct way and that gives
perfect peace. Doing this, stepping back and letting God take control of the
situation, grows our trust in Him. It gives us another spiritual marker upon
which to look back in the future to remind us of when God led the way, gave us
the better way, and gave us lasting peace.
Having
peace requires effort on our part. That effort is stepping back and trusting
God’s perfect will to effect the best plan for our situation. Christ offers peace.
He said in John 14:27, “Peace I give you.” We must accept and grasp Christ’s
peace by stepping back and letting God be Lord of our lives. We are each works
in progress. None of us on this side of heaven is completely remade into the
image of God. We are daily being made more like Jesus. We must daily set our
hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians
3:1). We must take to heart, and put into our minds and spirits, the final
phrase of John 14:27. He said, “Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it
be fearful.” Jesus gives peace, lasting peace, unlike what the world gives.
Will we step back from our situations, see God as our Lord, the mighty,
powerful Ruler, and trust and obey Him in the situation? We should not trust in
ourselves to deliver us from our situations and desires, but rather we should
trust in God who raises the dead, creates all things, and loves and saves us
from our sins. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10) Trusting and obeying God gives perfect,
lasting peace.
“Trust
and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
