Peace

Did anyone else sing along with the song "Grown-Up Christmas Wish"?  As we grow older, more of us wish with that song - we'd like relationships to be fixed, everything to be all better, and no more wars.  The gift we'd really like for Christmas is Peace on earth.

Peace.

Wow, I could really use some of that as we head into the new year.  Life seems uncertain.  Obama is [still] president, taxes on the rise, school shootings, healthcare mandates, freedoms being taken away, unrest in the middle east...

You know what?  I GOT IT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!  You can have it too - but it's not a gift you'll find wrapped under your tree.  Actually it was given about 2,000 years ago on the first CHRISTmas ever.  Think about it again, what the angels told the shepherds.

"...Peace on earth!" Luke 2:14

He came!  He embodied peace.  He was Peace.  Actually, the prince of Peace, so God (the Father) must be Peace.  And he sent his son, Peace incarnate, to earth - Peace truly was on earth.

"And he will be called: ... Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6

Remember the Christmas prophesy from Micah?  "But you Bethlehem... though you are small... out of you will come a ruler..." and if you keep reading a couple verses down it says,

"And He will be their peace."  Micah 5:5

My happy thought that we might actually have Peace on earth was followed by an, "Oh no!  Peace WAS on earth, but Jesus went back into heaven!"  But then I thought of the verse that says,

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you."  John 14:27

I like how the NLT version phrases it too, 

"I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.  So don't be troubled or afraid." John 14:27

"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." John 16:33 

"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. ... He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.  Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross... He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.  Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us." Eph. 3:14-17

You know when God says something to you really clear?  It doesn't happen (at least to me) often, but everywhere you turn, it's blaring loud, staring you in the face?  Like my verse God gave me for the new year:

"And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.  And always be thankful."  Colossians 3:15

I can tend to stress, worry even, about little or big things.  Things like missing so much work because of being sick. :P  So this is the verse that I am hanging onto and trying to obey.  If we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have Christ's Peace ("my Peace I leave with you..."), and that Peace should be ruling in my heart! :)

Here's my Christmas and New Year's wish to you:

"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation." 

2 Thess. 3:16