Hello to everyone and may the peace that is ours from the Father be yours now and forever more, amen! Seriously, I mean it! John 14 tells us that the Lord has left as his legacy the gift of peace. Peace that we cannot create or imagine in our wildest dreams. So what is peace and what is the significance of this peace. Why write to the city about this joy?
What is the value and necessity of this "peace," where and why is it important and how do we get it? As I talk with people in the city and the area around Minot, the one need I find consistent is the need for a peace in and about their lives. No peace, no sense of "it" ever being OK! I sense that the world, and this generation, is asking, "What does God have for us and why even give our faith the time of day?" The answer is that God has for us a gift of peace. It is his gift to help us make sense of it all!
It is important for me because it gives me a sense of covering, a mindset that someone or something bigger than I am is in charge and has the best in mind for me. Peace is being at rest, emotionally and spiritually, with all that is above, around and within. Peace is a serenity of mind where God rules. Peace is when the seas of life are splashing and the boat is dry. This peace gives me a deep sense that it just might be OK and that the world is not upside down in a hand basket of rotten apples.
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Rev. Bob Edwards
How does one get this peace? Believe that God is peace! It is not so much that we can attain it by our own efforts; but that it is the free gift of the very essence and nature of God. Peace is so easily lost if it is contingent that we do something to keep it. It is God who made it and it is God who will keep it. It might be based in our understanding that God is sovereign; that he provides all our needs; that he teaches us that there are parts of our lives that are absolutely out of our control (not his); that he tells us from within that we are loved unconditionally; and, that he gives us the gifts to be competent and confident in this world. All of these needs being answered and addressed by the spirit of God gives my life significance and security, the result for me peace!
So, in a nutshell: I could say, "Know Jesus and Know Peace; No Jesus No Peace!" How do we get it, ask the Lord for it. Yes, ask the Lord. Ask what you sense to be the creator of this universe, ask "Please God, help me to know peace?" It is his gift freely given and he will freely answer your request. You can have peace about this. Shalom!
I promise!
The Rev. Bob Edwards is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Minot.