Peace Like Jesus

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.

The Lord be with you all.

 

I am a very visual person. In my head when I hear certain things, I have mental images that pop up in my brain. This doesn’t happen for everything, but it does for a lot of things, and they are pretty consistent.

When I hear the word peace, I always see the image related to the story from Luke 8:22-25. This is the passage where Jesus asks His disciples to sail to the other side of the lake with Him. While they are sailing, Jesus falls asleep. Then, a storm arises and the boat begins to fill up with water.

And Jesus? Well, He is in the boat taking a NAP while the storm rages all around Him, completely undisturbed by the circumstances.

Because their lives are in jeopardy, His disciples wake Him up and beg for help. He rescues them by commanding the sea to be calm. The depiction I see in my head when I think of the word peace is always similar to this, a violent storm with rain coming down all around and blustery winds gusting and swooshing, but in my visional the boat is completely unaffected by all that is going on around it. The boat is grounded. Just like Jesus in the story, and just like the boat I visualize, when our peace comes from God Himself, we can be completely undisturbed also.

I think that so many times when we think of peace, when we hope for peace, we think that it means that everything is going fine or will go fine in our lives. That we don’t have conflict. We don’t have conflict with people, we don’t have circumstances that conflict with our plans and we don’t have conflict with our expectations of ourselves. We think that peace means that everything is right with our soul and everything is right in the world around us that we are living in.

However, the reality is, peace is not the absence of turmoil. Peace is not the absence of a storm. It is not the absence of difficulties nor heartache. Peace is knowing that in spite of the turmoil, storm and heartache, Jesus has everything right in the palm of His hands. Peace is letting go of the need to control. It is letting go of the need to fix it ourselves. Peace is being still, even in the storm, and knowing that God is God, that He has got our back and that our peace comes from Him. We can be the boat that is not afflicted by the weather, by the life circumstances that are all about us.

Peace is knowing that even though you did not get the job, God has a different job out there for you.

Peace is knowing that even though you are waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled, He will fulfill it…in His perfect timing.

Peace is knowing that even though you fall into bed night after night feeling like you have messed up yet again as a mother, that God loves your children even more than you do, and He will fill in the gaps where you feel like you fail.

Peace is knowing that blessings do not always look like what you think blessings should look like because God’s thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are His ways yours.

Back to the story in Luke. While the downpour blasted and the winds blustered, Jesus was spending His time enjoying a siesta. For Him, the boat was completely unaffected. While his disciples were disturbed, scared, anxious and no doubt filled with a myriad of other emotions, Jesus had peace. Even though He knew what His future held. Even though He knew what was coming His way in just a short time. Jesus had peace. He held on to His peace. And what did He do? He took a nap.

Now, you can say, “Well, Jesus knew that everything was going to turn out fine because He is God and He knows everything. That’s how He could take a nap.” And of course, that’s right. We aren’t God. We aren’t Jesus. We don’t know everything.

But we do know the God who does know everything.

And because we know this amazing God, we can be at peace. He is the God Who gives us the peace we desire. He will give it to each one of us, always, and by whatever means.

So, my sweet friends, we, too, can take a nap! If we keep our mind on Jesus (Isaiah 26:3), then we, too, can lay ourselves down and rest for a bit because God will keep us in perfect peace. We can trust, just like Jesus did, that no matter what kind of storm we have blustering on around us, that God is going to take care of it and us. He has got our back. He has it all, right in the palm of His hand.

 

Now, sweet Sister, go take a nap!

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Anne is the wife of Dave and mother to Jude, Aysha, Aliya, Aspyn and Amyah. She is also a teacher. She is a creamer with some coffee guru. She is a fan of coffee dates with her friends, especially her kindred spirits. She enjoys reading a good book, fiction or non-fiction, when she has some time. Quiet time with God and a good cup of coffee is one of her favorite parts of the day.