Peace

I have had this scripture from John 14:27 on my heart today. John 14:27 TPT says, “I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!”

I remember the first time God made this scripture come alive in my heart. I was struggling with anxiety at the time, and I was feeling particularly anxious about something I now don’t remember. I didn’t know how to deal with the anxiety or how to stop it from taking over my thoughts and emotions and I constantly found myself stuck in a fear cycle. Thinking the worst-case scenario about everything.

See some of your best qualities can also be your weaknesses. By nature, I tend to be a bit forward thinking. It is great for me as a lawyer because clients need to know that should the worst happen, I’ve got their backs. However, it is terrible when I approach life that way because peace just drifts further and further away, and fear closes in.

In the middle of one of my spirals into anxiety, I came across this verse in John 14:27. In the NIV it says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” I wrote that verse down and meditated on it. Jesus says that He left us with peace. The way Jesus says it is almost the same way He said He would not leave us as orphans in John 14:18 but instead we would receive the Holy Spirit who would be in us, John 14:17.

So, Jesus wasn’t leaving us with some imaginary peace, He was leaving us with something tangible. Something we can anchor ourselves to when we start to spiral. Not worldly peace which comes and goes but His peace which is steady, sturdy and unmovable. But the verse doesn’t stop there, He goes on to tell us to not let our hearts be troubled and not to be afraid. That means we have a choice. It’s like if someone knocks on the door, you have a choice to let them in or refuse them entry.

We can control what we allow to enter our hearts. Jesus tells us to not allow fear to put us in a chokehold. God does not operate in fear. Even in times when God was warning me about certain things, there was a peace about it. God never traffics in fear. So, when we feel our hearts are troubled or we feel fear making its way towards us, we know it is not coming from God. It is never from God.

This week, meditate on John 14:27. Whenever you start to feel anxious, troubled or afraid read John 14:27 and remind yourself that God’s peace is real, and it is strong enough to put fear in its place. Lean into God. We have the Holy Spirit living in us, ask Him to release Jesus’ peace into your heart and see what He will do.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.