Peace I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.]
John 14:27
Peace I give unto, not as the world gives. Let not your heart be troubled, either, nor let it be afraid. Afraid. Now, who’s speaking? Jesus is speaking here, these are the red letters and words. Jesus is saying, I leave my peace with you, and it goes on to say that we have a part in receiving that.
Our part is—let not your heart be troubled. In a time of just feeling like things were crushing in around me on a couple of sides, I began to sense an absence of the Lord’s presence. Are you ever aware of him in that manner, like, where did you go? Have you ever had those dry, quiet moments?
I know good and well, when that happens, it’s not because Jesus is not speaking, it’s because I’m not in a position to hear. It always falls on us. Don’t ever think that God is just ignoring you, having nothing to do with you for no reason. When those dry seasons come, it’s time to just refocus on you. Always look inward.
You might want to blame your spouse, your boss, your sister, or your mother-in-law. The list goes on forever and ever. You can find a bunch of folks to to blame, but if you’re going to get to the core of the problem really quickly, you need to ask inward. “Where am I Lord?” “What’s going on?” because I know You’re here, I’m just not able to find You.
In that time, He began to talk to me about worry. He began to show me that I had taken on worry, and it was so sneaky and so subtle, I would’ve never identified it as worry.
If you came to me and asked me what the problem was, I would probably say something and genuinely mean it. Well, I’m concerned about something. I’m concerned. I would have never said to you, genuinely not because I was trying to hide from you, but because it never crossed to my brain. I’m worried. I’m really worried. Things are not right. I’m worried.
Worry is a sin. We the body of Christ have a way to come out of that pit and stay out of that pit. Jesus went on to talk to me about where I was, and how I opened that door. This is the gist of what He said, “Linda, if you don’t get a grip on this, you will be swallowed by the darkness that is just ahead.”
Wow. If you think for a moment we are not moving into really dark, troubled waters, you’re just not paying attention. Things are swirling around us. It’s really a setup for the body of Christ to come into her most glorious hour.
Amen. It truly is, but you can get sucked into it and I was getting sucked into it and not even aware that I was. Peace. I leave with you not as the world gives gives. I give you my peace, Jesus said. When we became born again, every single one of us received peace. We need to remember this and receive it.