Peace Unbroken
Lesson Two • Fill ‘er Up
Devotion 3: Peace Unbroken
Karsen Theede
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” This is a quote from an American philosopher named Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph wrote an essay back in 1841 titled “Self-Reliance,” in which he instructs his listener to trust his judgment above all others and that only you can make yourself happy. Unfortunately, this thought process from the earlier quote has not been left in the past. In everyday life, people are trying to be at peace. Whether that is a Mom or Dad just trying to get those couple of precious minutes to themselves or something as large as our government making sure we do not go to war, everyone is looking for peace. Because of that, we understand how fragile and sometimes unobtainable peace can be. However, what if I told you that there is a peace that has been promised to us and is not easily destroyed?
Right now we are going through a series about God’s promises and, more specifically, God’s promises to us as believers. Right now, I want to focus on how the Lord gives us peace.
John 14:27 states, “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.”
Peace within the Bible can have a few different meanings. It can be a physical peace, used in relation to humans, as a freedom from disputes, or in this context, a blessing of peace from God. Freedom from disputes is something short-lived. We can see this in our everyday lives. You might think you finally reached peace with your family, but then someone forgot to run the laundry, or someone cuts you off on the road, and bam, your peace is broken. On the other hand, peace from God is something inward. It is the Holy Spirit working in you. Just like the disciples, whose lives were being drastically changed, Jesus told them that He was going up to the Father to prepare an eternal place for them. They felt no physical peace, but Jesus was telling them to have peace, knowing that He would be sending the Holy Spirit to give them peace until they joined Him in eternity.
The disciples had to trust and believe in order to feel this peace that Jesus spoke about, much like we do. God’s blessing of peace is not easily breakable, but we must have trust in Jesus to feel it. After you have accepted Christ and are living for Him, even when the peace in your surroundings is broken, you have peace knowing that you have eternal security.