Peace is a precious thing to treasure.
By peace, I’m not referring to that sense of quiet you prefer to have if the children have been screaming all day, and the spouse has been nagging about something or other. Peace does not necessarily mean the absence of noise.
God’s peace is profound and deep. It affects your inner being to such a degree that you’re capable of feeling complete and in harmony even in the midst of a tricky period. The peace of God passes understanding, it is not something to be thought through and develop a theory on it. This peace is real, it is reassuring you that the glimpses of wholeness you get from God are real and attainable.
To receive this peace then is something to truly admire and desire a deep passion for.
Keeping the peace is not as easy as receiving it and experiencing it. It’s not as easy, but it is certainly as important if not more so.
The key to the status of the peace is this: no one can take the peace from you, you have to behave in a way that gives it up. You have to be wary of the way in which you can lose the peace. You can only lose it when you choose to give it away, and here are some ways in which we can do that:
1) Neglecting the peace by allowing yourself to become agitated at a number of little unresolved issues.
2) Ignoring the peace by holding onto a grudge about someone when their name is mentioned
3) Harbouring unforgiveness and bitterness in the heart for a certain someone.
4) Cheapening the peace by thinking it is centred on externals and so pursuing that at the cost of that which you already had.
5) Belittling peace by going for values that you think are more important than peace.
It is very easy to lose your peace. It just requires someone to upset you and your reaction to follow the natural reaction. It simply needs to entice you you with other things that appear more suited to you at this time. Yet in the longer term it is very foolish to lose the peace for a piece of action that is fleeting and ultimately costly for nothing.
So it would be good to know how to keep the peace, well I’m glad your were wondering that too, and the answer to that is …
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 