Good morning! May the Peace of God be with you.

This morning I would like to talk about Peace. But not just ordinary peace, but the peace we are promised when we have a relationship with the One and Only Son of God, Jesus Christ.

We have all heard the stories about how Jesus was born into this world, lived a perfect life, was crucified on a cross, died for our sin, and was resurrected to everlasting life, seated at the right hand of the Father. But did you know that Jesus also gave us promises. That’s right, He did, and one of those promises is the promise of Peace.

You know, some people believe that the Bible is just a bunch of stories, but one of the things it says is that if we believe in God and have Faith in Jesus, then our sins will be forgiven and we can have a personal relationship with not just Jesus, but with God Himself.

Romans 5:1 says; “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

We can have peace with God. Now that is the peace I want to have, but it doesn’t stop there. You see, we all have problems in this life that we have to deal with, it’s great that I can have peace with God and all, but what about my life here today, and tomorrow?

Well, Jesus talked about that too;

In John 16:33, He said; “In this world you will have trouble”,

And we all know that is true, we seem to have trouble at every turn in life. Trouble here, trouble there, trouble everywhere.

Fortunately He didn’t stop there. He continues; “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”. And again,

John 14:27, Jesus says; “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

You see, Jesus gives us a very special kind of Peace, a peace that we can experience at any moment we feel we need it. It doesn’t matter how much trouble or problems we have in our life, we can always turn to Christ, any time we need His peace, and he has promised He will give it to us.

We can choose to handle problems ourselves, or we can turn them over to God and let him handle them.

It is a choice I make, and a choice you make, every day, and probably several times a day. Will I handle this problem myself, or will I choose to accept the Peace of God and let Him handle this problem. It is such a simple choice, and I want to choose to let God handle my problems.

How about you?

I would like to leave you with some additional verses on God’s promise of Peace.

2 Thessalonians 3:16,
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”

Isaiah 26:3–4,
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”

Philippians 4:5–7,
“The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Numbers 6:24–26,
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Have you ever had one of those days when you really wanted to finish something, but you just couldn’t. You know, like when you need to go to the doctor, but the car won’t start, and the taxi won’t be there for an hour.

Well, that is what my Thursday was like. I’m a software engineer, and my job lately is to fix things that are not working right. It sounds easy enough, after all I’ve been doing this for over a decade and I should know how to fix it when it’s broke.

My morning started out well enough, I had found the problem the evening before, and even talked to the original engineer that wrote this section, and he assured me he would look at in “in the morning”. So, when morning came, and I went to him for the consultation, and he didn’t have time for it. He said he would get to it. Being the easily irritated person I am, I was irritated. I went back to my desk with the plan to fix it without his help. I came up with what I thought was a brilliant solution, and then I was told I couldn’t actually apply my fix until this other person looked at it. Now, normally, that would be a reasonable request, after all we want the right fix, but this day, I was irritated because he wouldn’t make time to talk to me and I just had to wait.

I almost went ballistic, but instead I went home for an early lunch, thinking about not bothering to ever go back. Fortunately Debbie was home to help me start cooling down. We had a relatively relaxing lunch, and then I realized what I needed to do.

If you are a Christian, you know exactly what I realized. I needed to pray. You see, all morning I had been listening to those voices in my head that say things like; “they don’t care”, “they aren’t committed to getting this done”, “they are wasting your time”. Yes, all those voices that made me angrier and angrier. I even had a fellow worker try to tell me “it’s only a job”, to which I retorted “it’s not JUST a job”.

Ok, so I am a little intense… Well, maybe a lot intense.

Anyway, after lunch, I went to a room by myself and I prayed. Did I pray that God would bring fire down on all those people who were keeping me from getting stuff done? No, I prayed and allowed God to remind me that He was in control, and that I should let Him lead, and that I should stop listening to those other voices in my head. He reminded me that my work is only a job, and that He provided it for me so I could afford to do my real work, which is to be a minister for Him.

We all need money to live, and God will provide for our needs when we trust in Him;

Matthew 6:24-29 says; You cannot serve God and wealth. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

I got all wound up about all the wrong things, and for nothing. My desire is to remember who I belong to, and what is really important. How about you?