“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” Hebrews 13:20
What a crazy world we live in. If we were to believe all the news headlines, we would decide our world is splitting apart at the seams. It probably is! Oh, how we need God to breathe peace on our planet. Actually, He has. When the Lord Jesus hallowed this broken, crazy world with His coming, He showed us heaven’s headlines: “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.”
No matter how wild the world gets, as believers we experience this glorious peace because hostility no longer exists between the Father and us. A white Christmas is like a white flag of truce. The war between God and man is over: “Peace on Earth” were the words of the peace accord. God is no longer against us (Romans 9:22 says we were “objects of his wrath.”). God is now with us!
Still, it’s a crazy world. And, despite the peace of Christmas day, things will probably get crazy with us again. We need “the peace of God that rules in our hearts” not only on Christmas day but every day. God is with us; right in the middle of our world. And anywhere, at anytime, we may turn to Him, hear His voice, and know His peace. But it’s not just a crazy world; we keep crazy schedules. With the New Year, life will most likely keep speeding by at a blur. We will crowd our mornings, crunch our afternoons, and end up collapsing in the evenings. We need help in carving out moments and hours of peace in our day-to-day schedule.
It’s my prayer that as you turn your thoughts toward the New Year, you will be reminded of His calm and quiet. Hold the world at bay. Live in many moments of rest. May the peace of God go before you, leading you into each day. For whenever we look up into the face of our Father, whenever we quiet our spirit to hear His voice, we have found divine peace this crazy world can never take away.
God, may Your peace equip me with everything good for doing Your will in the upcoming year.
