Daily Manna · Day 32 · February 1
His Peace
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
When life is hard, a verse that tells your heart not to be troubled can sound like someone telling you to relax who has never seen your situation. Your jaw has been tight for a week, and you reread every message four times before you send it.
So instead of reading the word "peace" off a card, follow it through the Bible. It begins as a title: "his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Later in Isaiah it becomes a price, because "the chastisement of our peace was upon him," the Servant who was wounded for us. In Paul it becomes a standing with God before it is ever a feeling: "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then it becomes a Person: "he is our peace, who hath made both one." Only after all of that does it become something you feel, "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," which "shall keep your hearts and minds." The word "keep" there is a soldier's word. It means to guard, the way troops are posted at a city gate.
That is what makes Jesus' words here so exact. He says "my peace," and He means the peace He Himself carried into a garden and a trial that same night. It is His own, and He is giving it away. In the same conversation He told the same men, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." His gift was never a promise of calm weather.
So may the Prince of Peace be more to you than a feeling you have to produce by Friday. May the peace He paid for stand guard at the gate of your mind, like a soldier who does not leave his post. May your heart be untroubled because it is guarded. And may you sleep tonight under the watch of the One who never grows tired.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 32 is A Hard Thing (2 Kings 2:9).