One day I was at church just sitting in a chair waiting for the service to start. The pastor came down the steps and was making his way to the front. As he passed me, he said, “Peace be with you.” Now it is very rare that I am so quick thinking when it comes to quips and jokes, but in that moment, I said, “my peace I give to you.” The pastor stopped, smiled, and said, “I like that.” Then we moved on with our days.
I thought about that exchange afterwards. What I said was for real. I did want to give him my peace. But I had also said it because of a Bible verse. John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus left this earth and gave us peace. We can have his peace. That’s mind boggling for me to think about. Because we have his peace, we can offer his peace, and in turn our peace to others as well.
Here’s the thing though, to offer others peace, we need to be at peace ourselves. We need to have Biblical peace, which is not just calm and tranquility. It is having peace during those times but also in the storms of life as well. When things are going wrong and our world seems to be crashing around us, we are still calm because we have peace. We know God has a plan and nothing the world throws at us can hurt us. The worst thing that can happen to us is death. If that does happen, we will be with Christ.
Once we are at peace with ourselves and our circumstances, we can offer peace to others. We don’t have to fight them. We don’t have to argue. We can turn the other cheek. We can offer to go the extra mile. We can give them our cloak as well. Through those actions people will notice there’s something different about us. Then we can tell them how to get perfect peace.
So, are you at peace right now? How can you remember to have peace daily no matter your circumstances?
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