JESUS SPEAKING
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14: 27)
INSPIRED THOUGHTS
The thoughts and emotions of the unregenerate (unsaved) human being fluctuate wildly; rising and falling based upon their shifting circumstances, carnal appetites, and mental preoccupations. Thus the tranquility that the world offers is fleeting, momentary, and unstable. However, the peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ is permanent, steadfast, and unwavering. When an individual chooses to become a believer, they must then receive the Holy Spirit; which becomes a source of lasting joy that transcends every unstable circumstance, difficult trial, and present tribulation. Only through God can we know peace in the presence of our troubles.
As the story goes, Lady Hosie of England, on a visit to China, visited the leper hospital at Hangchow. She had photographed a group of lepers, when down the stairs was helped an elderly woman in a most pitiable condition; her sightless eyes, without their lids, were covered by a woolen mutch. A cry was raised that Chang Ma had missed having her picture taken, so the visitor prepared to take another with her in the midst. As she was focusing her camera, that worst leper of all started to sing, “There is a Happy Land,” and suddenly instead of poor lepers the visitor was seeing them as “saints in glory […] bright, bright as day.” She was taken to see one who was dying, and wondered what she could say to him. Steadying her voice, she called to him with politeness […] “Elder Brother, art thou at peace?” And from that frame, almost unrecognizable as human, with an affected tongue and from a lipless mouth, came a voice, cracked and yet steadfast, “Yes, at peace, at peace. And I shall soon see my Lord.”
Like those lepers, anyone can choose to know “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.” (Philippians 4: 7) Those who seek God’s peace must first be reborn; an act which includes sacrificing their old sinful lives for the new existence God has planned for them. Having placed their faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will enter them and renew and transform their hearts and minds. Only then can they know genuine peace; only then can they experience the true joy which isn’t circumstantial, but is rather the product of a regenerated relationship with the Living God. Through faith in Jesus Christ, accompanied by repentance, anyone who wishes can receive God’s Holy Spirit.
Lord Heavenly Father, we desire to know Your peace; an everlasting tranquility that does’t change or fluctuate with our circumstances. Give us more of Your Holy Spirit, that we might have joy, even in the midst of our trials and tribulations. May others observe Your steadying presence in us and be drawn to You for the salvation of their souls. We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You; and we ask and pray all of these things, according to Your will, in Jesus Christ name we pray. Amen. God bless all of you!
Jesus Speaks 