Where do you go to “get away from it all?”
The world is full of strife and striving and it is clear that we cannot “all get along” as Rodney King hoped in the midst of the L.A. riots of the early 90’s. Daily we are assaulted by another ignorant soundbite from society in the media. Daily we are hit by the realities of our mortality – the sudden onset of illness, the sudden loss of loved ones, or of freedoms, or hopes and the dashing of dreams – these come at various times sometimes fast and furiously to punch us once more right in the gut.
About that…Jesus warned us; He said in (John 16:33), “In this world you WILL have tribulation...” – we will have trouble.
So let me ask you again, where do you go to get away from it all? Does peace have an address?
First of all, lets consider where peace CANNOT be found; it cannot be found in this world – Jesus said it. Specifically speaking to His followers, the Lord declared that nothing on earth can give you lasting peace. Look what He said in (John 14:27):
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Through His cross, Jesus has “overcome the world” and because of that He said that we could rejoice or “be of good cheer” (John 16:33).
If peace cannot be found around us in this world and Jesus promised that He would leave such a peace with us that we need no longer be overwhelmed by the troubled of this world – where is it?! Where is this peace of which the Lord spoke?
It is IN you. Trusting in Jesus, abiding in Him and He in us (John 15:5) through the person of His Holy Spirit (John 14:17) combine to make peace an ever available resource in every place where your feet may take you.
Sometimes though, we don’t draw from that well within us at first. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed that we become temporarily overcome by the storm around us. Like Peter, we often tend to focus on the storm (see Matthew 14:26-32) around us rather than on Him who calms the storm – we focus on the uncertainties of life and in that moment we are walking in fear instead of faith.
If we focus too long on the storm our heavenly vision gets out of whack and instead of eyes of faith we see through eyes of flesh and what we see drags us down to discouragement, despair and depression.
In that moment, emotion wins out over truth.
The fact is that our emotions and eyes of flesh are always at war with our faith – they seem to have been with the writer of Psalm 42 and 43 and in those moments we must cling to our hope in God and to His promises.
In (Isaiah 26:3) we see one of those promises:
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed (focused, concentrating) on You, Because he trusts in You.”
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?” the Psalmist asked himself in (Psalm 42:5), “and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.”
Because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead; because he keeps His promises and dwells within us in the person of His Spirit we don’t have to search for a peaceful place nor be run over by our troubles.
Faith in Jesus makes peace possible in every place and at ANY time.
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