John 14:27
Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you.
In this chapter Jesus continually speak on peace in encouragement
to His disciples. In a short while He would be arrested and tortured by the
Romans and the temple officials and then all His disciples will be hiding in
fear.
In this chapter, Jesus also prepared His disciples by telling
them that they would receive peace when the Holy Spirit will come upon them. We
read in the scriptures that after the crucifixion of Jesus all the believers
were scattered and went into hiding fearing that they may also be arrested and
persecuted.
They were obedient to Jesus’ instructions to wait in
Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit has come upon them. At this point, they did not
know what and who the Holy Spirit was. All that they knew was that they
believed in Jesus and trusted in what He told them.
Subsequently we learn that when the Holy Spirit baptized them
in the anointing, they were embolden and they went out full of courage. Later
Paul also taught the Church that one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is peace
which He will give us. Gal 5: 22-23 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, meekness, self-control.
In this discourse in John, Jesus promised that He will grant
to us the promise of peace for our daily living. He said in verse 33 “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.”
This is the peace that the world does not understand and
cannot receive. Material wealth and possessions do not grant us peace, in fact
many wealthy people though rich and in high office do not have peace. Rather
their wealth and lifestyle cause them more worries and insecurity.
We who have received this peace from Jesus understand this.
Often we hear of believers who are undergoing stress and challenges in their
lives but they testify that they have that inner peace from Jesus which gives
them the assurance that everything will work out well for them.
If we do not have this peace, we can come before God in
prayer and ask for this gift.
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