“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
Jesus promises the disciples that in him they will have peace. The word for peace in the Old Testament, “shalom,” means a lot more than the absence of conflict. Its meaning includes well-being, justice, and confidence. It includes the idea of being under God’s protective hand (Isaiah. 41:10; John 10:29; I Peter 5:6).
How can we experience peace in an anxious and uncertain time? Jesus does not call us to get away from the world but rather to go into it (Matthew 28:19–20). The world remains a place of fear and anxiety. The world’s peace is fleeting and anxious. That is not the peace of Christ. Christ’s peace conquers the world (John 16:33).
We need to live in that peace.
Paul Leggett, May 2020