“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

— John 14:27

Do you ever feel that life moves too fast? Perhaps you can relate to the old saying “Stop the world—I want to get off.” Sometimes the world spins too fast; one day melds into the next; and, despite our frenzied and harried pace, we fall further and further behind on our obligations.

But God doesn’t want us to live this way. He wants us to “be still and know that I am God.” Jesus says to us, “Come unto me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest.” In fact, God instituted the Sabbath, an important time of rest. When was the last time you sat still in God’s presence, enjoying His rest?

We desperately need “downtime.” Dr. Richard Swenson, author of Margin, a book about reducing stress, says that we need to restore what he calls our “margins,” our reserves. He points out that we live overloaded lives today. But, Swenson says, we can’t deplete our spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, and time reserves for too long without paying for it in one way or another.

Jesus left a legacy to His disciples, a legacy we share in, a legacy that keeps us from depleting all our resources. What is this legacy? His peace. Christ declares to us, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” Oh, how we need it in these troubled times when people’s hearts literally fail them for fear. Threats of terrorists and crime rob millions of people of peace. Job insecurity steals people’s serenity. Nervous breakdowns abound. Pharmacies sell tranquilizers by the millions of pounds each year. We desperately need Christ’s peace, and to gain it, all we need to do is surrender ourselves to God. We find the secret of peace in trusting in His perfect will for our lives, yielding ourselves to rest in His trustworthy arms.

Do you need a dose of peace today? Just look to Christ, the sovereign Lord of all history. He will bring His perfect will to fruition as you trust in Him. Whatever your problems, fix your eyes upon Jesus, and peace will flood your soul.

“Don’t wrestle, just nestle.”
Corrie Ten Boom