As I look out my window at the dull, grey clouds waiting for the certainty of the next spring 
thundershower, I am reminded of God’s peace that envelops and calms our restless spirits. For even though the storm is inevitable, the assurance of God’s love gathers us in His arms and holds us close through it all.
This peace, as we already experience, is readily attainable through Jesus. While preparing His disciples for His eminent departure, He stated that He was leaving them with His peace. He told them His peace was not of this world (John 14:27). In Rom. 5:1, we are told that since Jesus freed us from sin and made us righteous through our faith, that “we are able to experience true and lasting peace through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King”(The Voice). Paul also wrote to the church at Philippi that God’s peace (which is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over our hearts and minds in Jesus (Phil. 4:7, The Voice).
Once we know with confidence Jesus is our Prince of Peace, our lives, with certainty, are much more serene. Being able to rest upon His promises of peace gives us comfort and hope. Jesus conveyed many times how we aren’t to worry and that our hearts should not be troubled. He knew that if we just trusted in Him, our burdens would be made light.
So, there we have it. As God’s children we’ve been given it all. Through the gift of His Holy Spirit, we have an abundant, peace-filled, hope generating, and everlasting life. Earlier, (six sentences ago), we were reminded that God’s peace passes “all human understanding”. Herein lies the impenetrable force keeping us from grasping all the goodness God gave to us so generously. Our humanity keeps us from fully experiencing the wonder of who God desires us to be in Him. We search His Word, we talk to Him, and we give Him praise. We try our best with our limited human understanding to grip onto the vastness of WHO GOD IS and WHAT HE MEANS to each of us.
Well, my fellow sojourners in Christ, the mysteries of God are His and His alone. We can keep searching, we can strive to daily become more like Him, and we can most assuredly share Him with a lost and dying world. Those without Him have even more questions, but most of those can be answered. What is the solution for we who are already in Christ? The puzzle is simply solved by our resolve to keep on keeping on. We must be faithful to Him because He NEVER QUITS being faithful to us. We must cling to His promises of love, joy, and peace.
As a child, my home church was going to present a children’s musical called “The Music Machine”. Although we were never able to perform it, the words from many of those songs have stayed with me. The musical was about the fruits of the Spirit. For me, my favorite was entitled, PEACE. I was hoping to get the solo! Anyway, the song has two verses explaining what peace is like from the perspective of a child. The chorus went like this, “Peace, peace, I think I understand. Peace, peace is holding Jesus’ hand”. How amazingly simple to comprehend!
We just need to remember that His peace will always quiet the storms in our lives. His peace will pacify our souls and bring tranquility in the midst of our most dire and tumultuous circumstances. Today I leave you with one of Paul’s verses of encouragement to the church in Rome. Rom. 15:13, “I pray that God, the source of all hope, will infuse your lives with an abundance of joy and peace in the midst of your faith, so that your hope will overflow through the power of the Holy Spirit”, and also Rom. 15:33, “I pray the God of all peace will be with you all. Amen” (The Voice).