March 31, 2006...3:21 am
Peace
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions—John 14:1-2. John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Tribulation is a spacious word. It comprehends a largeness of experience. It embraces everything from common worry up to fierce and bitter persecution. He is not legislating for recluses. He is speaking to men who are thoroughly familiar with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” It is to them He says, in that quiet way of His, which in its quietness carries the ring of sovereignty, “Let not your heart be troubled.” There are two spheres here. In the world, and in Him. Two spheres at war.. no wonder these is little peace. Sometimes there may be peace if the world adopts the Christian world view, or the so called Christian, the church, adopts the worlds world-view. “This world is all a fleeting show” poem. There are two conditions for peace.. in John 16:33.. a. In Me.. b. I have said these things Jn14:1 One of the first things said to point us to peace. Great emphasis is to be laid on the word heart for the word heart is put in the last place in Gk. He never asks us to shirk responsibilities, nor to rid ourselves of duties or of cares. But He wants us, as we move through life, playing our part and shouldering our burdens, to have a kind of interior tranquillity. We may have a heavy load of care at home. But through all that, however hard and worrying, we are to move with a quiet undisturbedness. On the circumference may be a score of frets: these frets are never to reach into the center. Whatever the noise of battle in the field, the soul is to be garrisoned with peace. For this undisturbedness, He tells us, there are three things which are necessary.
1. a quiet faith in God. If He be the God of Abraham and of Isaac, then He is the God of individuals. He does not deal with us upon the scale of thousands; He deals with us upon the scale of one. If trials be only the bludgeoning of fate, if things that meet us be only chance occurrences, it is incredibly hard for common men and women to be victoriously serene within. But the moment we say, “This thing is of God,” however dark and inscrutable it be, then the birds start singing in the trees. If underneath are the everlasting arms, if not a sparrow can fall without our Father, if He who sees the end from the beginning is ordering everything in perfect wisdom, however hard life be, or unintelligible, there comes a radiant quietness at the center, and in that quietness we overcome the world. We are not here to be beaten. We are here, the weakest of us, to be more than conquerors. A deep faith in the sovereignty of God overthrows the tyranny of things.
A God Who Is Sovereign. A God Who Is Purposeful. A God Who Is Loving
2. a strong faith in the Lord Jesus. To trust Him fully is to be at rest. Through Him we get a grip of God that was simply impossible before. Walking with Him, we learn the love of God with a fullness hitherto unknown. The thorn in the flesh may not be taken away. Burdens may weigh heavy on us still, and uncongenial tasks be very irksome. What is given is not a tranquil world, nor is there any promise of a tranquil life–what is given is the tranquil heart. We have a Friend beside us in the darkest mile. We have a Savior who can save unto the uttermost. Rom 8:35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
A Saviour Who Is Personal, A Saviour Who is Sympathetic.
A Saviour Who Is Proven.
3. A Confidence In The Future “In my Father’s house are many mansions … I go to prepare a place for you.” There every question will be answered, and every chastisement reveal its loving-kindness. There we shall reach the crowning and completion of all we have tried to do and failed to do. You want to live a full, abundant life; but are you really equipped for such a life? Is your will strong enough–your feeling fine enough–your conscience quiet enough–your heart deep enough? Then Christ comes, and says, “Friend, enter into My fellowship today, and I shall give you the resources that you need.” Christ can take the sting out of the conscience. Christ can strengthen the weak, unstable will. Christ can exalt and purify the feeling. Christ can deepen the undeepened heart. He can possess you with His divine resources for a full, abundant, and victorious life, and in that possession there is peace. Peace is harmony. Peace is intense life. Peace is being equal to the problem. Peace is possessing adequate resources for an overcoming and abundant life. That is the kind of peace which Jesus gives, not a dull and joyless resignation, but all the resources a guilty sinner needs to enjoy eternal life “in Him” now.
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