Even though Jesus tells his disciples—and us today—that we will have trouble in our lives, we can take great comfort in knowing that regardless of the situation or circumstance, God will never abandon us. What comfort and peace that should bring you.
And yet when we are in those times of despair and anxiety, we many times forget to call upon him and allow ourselves to be aware of his presence in our lives. Verse 17 of John 14 goes even further as Jesus states God not only will be “with” you in but he takes up residence “in” you as his Holy Spirit. As he does this he is able to speak to the deepest parts of your being and touch your very spirit.
The world around you can be crumbling down and the noise of it can be deafening, but because of God’s position within you, his still small voice can provide you the calming reassuring voice that unmistakably is his.
People talk all the time and speculate about what Jesus would do if he were here walking the earth again. Would he go to your church? What would he say to the people you come into contact with each day? How would he encourage and correct you and your friends? What would he say about how you are spending his money?
The reality is Jesus most certainly is walking the same earth you’re walking and going to the very places you are going to because he is living again in you. Christians can “hear” his Spirit within themselves, urging them to move and speak at different times. When has there been a time that you, without any real foreseeable reason, moved or spoke to someone and it had a profound result?
Peace is something we hear about many times each week and usually it is pertaining to a part of the world that is in conflict and looking for ways to have it resolved under the banner of “peace.”
We need to take note that this isn’t the kind of peace Jesus is talking about in John 14:27. The world’s idea of peace is when the conflict and fighting stops, but there still is known animosity and bad feelings between the two parties. We know this is true because one day two countries can be at “peace” and then one small incident can erupt and throw the two countries into war again.
When Jesus tells his disciples he is giving them his peace, what is he saying? Jesus is speaking specifically about the peace between himself and God the Father. It’s what the Jewish nation had been desiring for thousands of years but never could attain.
Jesus now extends that to his disciples back then and to his followers today. To be at peace is more than simply choosing not to fight. You see that’s not really peace at all, because there still is strife that remains inside. The peace of Christ has the power to truly allow someone to be at peace.
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The world has its own ideas of peace; it is ready to offer quick fixes and material things for you to spend your money on because it wants you to buy the lie that it will make you feel better about yourself or a situation. Funny thing is after a while you find yourself “needing” to buy something else in order to have that feeling again. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like peace to me, especially when the bills come due, and those things have to be paid for.
Ultimately, isn’t that what people are searching for today? Peace. Rest. Comfort with no strings attached. As Christians, the world needs to see us living in this peace. Watch how God will draw others to you when you do this. Be ready to share the peace that you enjoy.
Happy is temporary; joy is eternal. Happiness is an emotion; joy is a state of being. A person can’t be happy and sad at the same time. However, a person can be sad and joyful at the same time. Aren’t we amazed by people who, even though the world seems to be falling down around them with things like cancer or death in their lives, still seem upbeat and full of joy? Who do you know like this?
I’m convinced that we have a lot to learn from them about joy. Sure, their emotions may have their ups and downs during these times, but their states of being remain true.
I believe we sometimes can misread John 15:13. We immediately think the verse is talking about sacrificing your life for a friend’s life. You die so that they can live, and this would certainly be a correct interpretation of the verse. We know this is true because Jesus is about to do this very thing as the ultimate show of love.
But what if it’s not just a call to physically die but to die to ourselves in having our own way, or making sure our opinion is heard over everyone else’s. Sure, you will physically die once, but the call of the Christian is to die daily for your friends. And it never says how many times.
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