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 pea cocking 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 is humiliated.
God does not ask you to take risks for Him without assurance or to believe in him without real evidence. He indwells, inhabits, and infuses God’s Man with an inner witness that substantiates your commitment to Christ in compelling and bold, seemingly incongruent, stands for Christ. God’s most powerful witness to us is in a hostel 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 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.
The Holy Spirit, by contrast, brings peace in the midst of conflict, distress and persecution. It simply doesn’t make sense for the Comforter to bring that kind of peace, that peace comes naturally. In a strange way, the more uncomfortable a circumstance or the risk for God, the more profoundly one experiences the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Father, thank you for the peace you promised. Make me aware of it.