Day 11

God has called us to live in peace…for He himself is our peace.

(1 Corinthians 7:15, Ephesians 2:14)

Just what is “peace” to you? What would need to happen for you to have a peaceful day, a peaceful sleep, or a peaceful life?

Win the lottery? Find a soulmate? Rekindle your relationship with your spouse? Land a better job? Be cured of sickness? Be healed of bitterness? Forgive someone you hate?

Peace is actually “wholeness”. It’s when things in and around your life are working together as a whole (when all the pieces are fitting together). This is why we lose that “Peaceful Easy Feeling” when things start to fall apart. And the more life-storms rage, the more fear and anxiety tends to take the place of peace. And we find ourselves becoming as frenzied as the storm we are facing.

So how can we “hold on” to peace, even when life isn’t holding together?

Here is a simple, but profound, answer…

Peace is not an emotion; it is a Person.

Check this out in Mark 4. When the disciples were frantically rowing through a violent storm, water swamping the boat faster than they could bail, where was Jesus? He was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. When they woke him, his first words were, “Peace! Be still!” And the winds and waves obeyed. His second words were to his disciples: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

“Who is this man,” they ask in stunned amazement.  He is the same One who was sleeping in heavenly peace on that silent night in a manger 30 years before. His name is Jesus; He is your Peace.

Application:

• Christmas is the “Peace on earth” season. If worry, doubt and fear have taken over, learn this from that story in Mark 4: The greater miracle isn’t faith that the storm be still around you, but faith that you be still within the storm.