Peace. Take a second and consider what this word has come to mean to you in your life. What sort of thoughts come to your mind when you think about peace? Maybe a certain memory comes to your mind? A place? A person? A specific season in your life?
Whether you realize it or not, our vision of peace has been shaped by the culture we have grown up with!
In most stories (books, movies, video games, etc.), the ending is called the denouement (I still don’t know how to pronounce this). If you don’t remember that from 9th grade English, the denouement is basically how a story gets its neat little bow. Loose ends are tied up. Lingering questions get answered, and you get this nice overall sense of closure.
We normally get very little insight into what life after this looks like for the characters we come to know, yet the portrayed endings of these stories have ingrained themselves in the way we think about and experience our own lives. We desire resolution. We desire the loose ends in our own lives to get a nice, pretty bow on them. We desire clarity in how things will turn out for us. In reality, we trudge through our lives with difficulty, complexity, and a nice chunk of loose ends. No wonder we are plagued with discontentment when the life we are currently living doesn’t provide the same sense of relief and closure we experience in the stories we absorb!
The good news is this: God promises us His peace. Period! Full stop!
He’s not holding out on you until you get your life together. His work on the cross has reconnected you with the only true source of peace: Himself!
Take some time to read through these three passages:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1
“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.” John 14:27
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7
Man, isn’t that so good? Not as the world gives do I give to you.
His peace is different from what the world can offer us.
His peace is better than what the world can offer us.
Remember the true source of peace this Christmas season. Even in the midst of chaos, as you gather with loved ones and share how life is truly going, you don’t need everything to have a neatly tied bow on it to experience His peace.
Reflect on these two questions:
- In what ways may God be challenging and redeeming the view of peace you have come to hold?
- What step could you take to make sure you are resting in the peace only God can offer?