The Gift of Peace

In this month’s series “Unwrapping Christmas: Gifts from Jesus” we are looking at spiritual blessings that are ours through Jesus. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Today, we’ll look at the gift of peace that surpasses understanding.

My Bible, crayons, markers, and construction paper were spread out in front of me. It was quickly approaching midnight on a Saturday night when I took a deep breath, sighed, stretched, and then chuckled out loud at the sudden recognition of how very tense I had become. Oh, the irony!

I’d reached a moment of “why do I feel too tense to breathe?” anxiety while preparing the children’s Sunday School lesson on the topic of peace. Surely God laughed with me.

After eighteen years at our home church, God has gently led our family to join a local church right in our neighborhood. It has been beautiful getting to know our neighbors more deeply as we walk in faith and fellowship together, but the decision to make that transition was far from easy.

Peace Like a River

That particular Saturday night in May, still in the unsettled thick of the church decision, I was preparing to teach my first Sunday School lesson at our neighborhood church. While I wrote, colored, and cut my presentation materials, my heart was racing with the anxiety of uncertainty.

And then I looked down at the poster I’d prepared for that week’s Fruit of the Spirit lesson. In front of me was a blue river labeled PEACE, bordered by flourishing trees and flowers. “Upstream,” on the left, the river was fed by large drops of water on which was written:

God is good.
God is faithful.
and
God loves me.

Here I was, preparing to tell children about how God’s peace flows into us and through us, and how that river of peace begins with knowing God. And my eyes were so fixed on the unknown future before me, rather than the character of God, that my own river was running pretty dry.

God is Good

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for his steadfast love extends forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:34)

“Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:8-9)

The Bible tells us again and again that God is good!

God is Faithful

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Taken together, the knowledge that God is entirely, through-and-through good and that He is faithful, steadfast, and sovereign means that there is nowhere safer than by His side. We can rest in the knowledge that He is bringing about His good will.

God Loves Me

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

I, as God’s beloved, am a recipient of His forever lovingkindness.

My peace is not dependent upon favorable circumstances around me. Nor does peace require that I understand how it is all going to be okay. Instead, the gift of peace is a deeply abiding peace – peace with God, peace within myself, and peace with others – that can be experienced even in the context of external turmoil.

That Saturday night, I stopped my busy hands and quieted my worried heart. I sat on the living room floor in the stillness of the night  and let my heart soak in these reassuring truths, one at a time:

God is good.
God is faithful.
God loves me, and He loves my children.

And then, the threat of making the wrong decisions for our family began to melt away. In its place grew a more confident assurance that God could be trusted to actively guide my husband and I as we prayed and listened.

Depths of Peace

There are far more truths about the character of God that feed our river of peace than the three I highlighted for my Sunday School lesson.  I could have similarly written on the water droplets flowing into the river of peace “Jesus is victorious” (John 16:33) and “I am forgiven” (1 John 1:9) among others.

As we unwrap these Christmas gifts, freely given to us through Jesus, let your heart eagerly receive the peace He offers.

God is good.
God is faithful.
And He loves you.