Peace?

Peace? Peace.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

This week I watched facebook for the postings of many friends who live in and around Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and Mississippi. Tornadoes spun through the land like a bulldozer, flattening homes and towns. Imagine the relief and joy that flooded in when one after another chimed in, “We’re OK.”

As I considered this, I was reminded of the days we waited to hear from loved ones who lived in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, and Pennsylvania nearly ten years ago. The idea of peace then and now in the midst of such destruction seems somewhat ironic, doesn’t it?

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But Jesus promises us peace. He forewarned us that tragedies would strike and fear would want to pierce our hearts; and he proceeds to say, “But take heart!”

My translation would be, “Don’t let that embed fear into you. Lean into Me during those times.”

Why? “I have overcome the world,” says Jesus.

What does that mean to us? I don’t know about you, but in Matthew, Jesus says, “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains,” (Matthew 24: 7b – 8 NIV).

It is important to Jesus that our faith be built up in Him. Know that He is stronger than anything the world can toss our way. He, like a loving mentor and father, offers that assurance, “Listen up. Things will get rough, but don’t worry. I won’t allow you to be destroyed.”

Paul shares with us, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

(Romans 8: 18 – 22 NIV)

Can you imagine? The earth, all of creation, waits in eager anticipation for the revelation of the sons of God. That would be us, I think.

And when everything is said and done, we will stand in glory with Jesus, gazing upon the new heaven and earth, in all its splendor that may have been God’s original design—or better.


It's been a pleasure to visit with you.