Bring It!
Peace I leave with you: my peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
“Bring it!” That’s macho talk for “Game on,” “Let’s do this thing,” “Let’s rock and roll, baby.” You get the picture.
On the other side of all this peacocking is the severity of reality. Once the talking stops the action starts—the truth is told and some men prove themselves. One rises above and the other … well, just doesn’t.
God does not ask you to take risks for Him without assurances, or to believe in Him without real evidence. He indwells, inhabits, and infuses God’s man with an inner witness that substantiates his commitment to Christ in compelling, bold, and seemingly incongruent stands for Him. God’s most powerful witness to us is in a hostile world.
The world gives peace in the presence of comfort and in the absence of hardship or hostilities. You’ve seen the commercial: two people laying on a white sandy beach as they sip beer to the sounds of the sleepy ocean tide. That’s how the world brings peace. The defining marker is the absence of conflict. But that’s just peacekeeping. Retaining the status quo. Not rocking the boat.
The Holy Spirit, by contrast, brings peace in the midst of conflict, distress and persecution. That’s genuine peacemaking. It simply doesn’t make sense for the Comforter to bring that kind of peace—the kind that leaves things unresolved, midstream, to be continued. Conflict lies at the center of the spiritual battle we encounter every day as God’s men. His peace is rarely gained without a spiritual fight. In a strange way, the more uncomfortable the circumstance or the risks for God, the more profoundly one experiences the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.
God’s peace is not the kind that allows us to remain comfortable living in the wilderness. But His peace is permanent and everlasting. Pursue it. Engage.
Father, thank You for the peace You promised. Make me aware of it.