Jesus' Peace

 I don't think we appreciate the humanity of Jesus as we should. He was fully God, but He was fully man, too. The only difference from us in his humanity was that He never sinned. Therefore, Jesus had all of the physical pains and stresses that we have. He experienced all of the same human needs that we experience. He became hungry, thirsty, and got tired. In all of these things Jesus lived a life of perfect peace. Yes, I know He was under great stress in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, and He cried out to the Father to let that cup pass from Him. However, after that prayer for God's will to be done, He went to the cross in His perfect peace, even praying for His executioners. Just before that, even on the way to the garden perhaps, He told His disciples not to be troubled, and He gave them His peace. (John 14:27) What a fabulous gift! He explained that His peace was not as the world gives. His peace would allow them not to be troubled or to be fearful, no matter what happened to them. Now, that is the kind of peace we all need every day. 

I wonder if we are taking advantage of Jesus' gift of His peace? I know sometimes we receive gifts, but we do not use them, as we should. In fact, I have heard of people who open nice gifts, put them back in the boxes, and never take them out again. I believe that is what many believers do with Jesus' peace. They live in constant turmoil, even though Jesus has given them just what they need to live an abundant life of peace and contentment. I pray we will take Jesus at His Word here. We will stop having a troubled heart and we will stop being fearful. We will take our cares and fears to the Lord Jesus, and we would apply His peace to them. Then, we will not have to have the absence of conflict to have peace, like people in the world. We will have peace like Jesus had on the cross, when He died the most terrible death we can imagine. See what I mean? Jesus gave us His peace, but we have to live in it. Once we do, our lives will be totally different from before.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read John 15-18.