Peace I Leave With You - Monday 19 June 2006
At the end of the remake of Alfie, reflecting on his experiences, the character played by Jude Law closes the film saying “What have I got…really? Some money in my pocket, some nice threads, a fancy car at my disposal…and I’m single, unattached, free as a bird, I don’t depend on nobody, nobody depends on me, my life’s my own. But I don’t have peace of mind. And if you don’t have that you’ve got nothing.”
Peace… If you could bottle it and sell it, you’d be a millionaire… In fact countless millions have been made from offering just a glimpse of it, but such glimpses are all too fleeting. The peace or Shalom of the Bible is more than a warm fuzzy or momentary feel good – but something deeper, a complete soundness and well being that permeates the whole of us.
This week I can’t offer you a failsafe plan to make millions, but I want to explore together some reflections on Jesus’ remarkable words to his disciples:
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.
John 14:27
These words come as Jesus has been telling his disciples that he will be going to the Father – that the journey they have shared so closely is coming to an end. Their response is confusion, shock, questioning, and doubtlessly a gnawing sense of pain and anguish. And it is into this that Jesus speaks these words.
This morning just come before God and allow the Holy Spirit to speak those words of Jesus into your heart. Spend a couple of minutes meditating on the passage – it may be you need to bring to him a situation that is troubling you, if so do that – but soak in the fact that the eternal Son of God says to you, “Peace I leave with you…” | 