John 14:27 “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.”

The Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17) is so incredibly rich that it deserves a lifetime of meditation. I could preach on any verse in it (and probably have)! This particular verse is one we need to let the Holy Spirit remind us of often (as it talks about in verse 26). The world is constantly trying to steal our peace, or rather, the devil uses the world to do so. The world’s peace is based on things and circumstances, but the peace of Christ is based on who He is and who we are in Him. That can seem pretty distant and theoretical in the middle of things, but once we get it worked into our spirits, it’s unshakable. The thing to remember is that God wants and intends for us to have peace in our hearts. Japanese uses different terms for inner and outer peace, and here it is specifically inner peace. We can’t control our circumstances, but we can certainly influence our response to them, and that is clearly what Jesus is talking about here. Too often we allow our hearts to be troubled! When such temptation comes, the thing to do is remind ourselves of the character of God, Who loves us so much that He sent His Son for us. By the time John wrote the letters we have as part of the New Testament he had been through a lot, so he was speaking from experience when he said, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18) He was the one who recorded Jesus’ words from the Upper Room, and he learned to live them out. We need to follow his example, and let the love of God in Christ fill us to the point that there is no room for fear, but only peace and joy.

I am in the middle of a practicum on this very issue, with my wife in the hospital waiting to have a heart attack. She needs to have a coronary ablation to correct the nerve misfiring that causes ventricular tachycardia, because the medicine she has been taking for the past 20 years for it worsens the symptoms of the Parkinson’s Disease with which she was diagnosed last year. However, she needs to have an incident recorded on an ECG or they can’t tell exactly which nerves to treat, so she’s off her medication and in the hospital. Since VT causes her to pass out, driving without the medication is a very risky thing, to say the least. Just describing the situation to someone yesterday made them say, “That’s scary!” Humanly speaking, it certainly could be. However, God is using it to remind us that His love hasn’t changed in any of this, and that His grace is sufficient for us. (2 Corinthians 12:9) I am to thank God for Who He is and who I am in Him, and trust Him with everything.

Father, thank You that You aren’t weak like we are, and that nothing ever fazes You. Help me keep my eyes on Jesus, and help Cathy to do likewise, so that together we may “not let [our] hearts be troubled, neither be afraid.” Thank You. Praise God!