To buffer ourselves against life’s emergencies, we all make hefty prepayments to companies ‘offering’ insurance policies which, we hope and pray, we’ll never be in a situation to use (it should be added that these companies also hope and pray we’ll never make a claim). We advance these monies to cover our homes, our cars, and our lives, and, here in the US, even our health. We do all this, we’re told, for our own peace of mind should the unexpected arise. This peace of mind, it turns out, is very costly.
There is, however, a peace of mind ‘insurance policy’ available to us which Jesus has prepaid on our behalf. He promised: “I leave the gift of peace with you – my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts – instead, be courageous!” Jn. 14:27 TPT. The word ‘perfect’ means 100%, full, complete, lacking nothing, never found insufficient. Jesus’ gift of peace is free of charge, on eternal automatic renewal, no worrisome fine print, guaranteed to be ridiculously more than enough, regardless of the circumstances. And like those policies, our sense of need can become day-to-day wallpaper, back burner stuff, tucked away in a shoe box under a bed somewhere, when life seems to be humming nicely along. It’s when life goes sideways, when accidents occur, when relationships splinter, when death steals a loved one, that we are abruptly rerouted back to first things. And what’s incredible, is that while we may have lapsed into forgetfulness regarding the precious character of the peace we’ve inherited, Jesus has not! He is the ever-faithful, unshakeable One! The writer to the Hebrews concurs: “Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakeable kingdom we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purestworship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe. For our God is a holy, devouring fire!” Heb. 12:28,29 TPT. The emphasized words point upward to the central, revealed truth of the all-encompassing plan of Salvation of a holy, redeeming, loving God for a sin-weary, sin-distressed, humanity. May we, along with our suffering brothers and sisters in Ukraine and Russia, see Jesus towering above all conflict, arms outstretched, offering his peace, weeping, heartbroken, in all his majesty and splendor. We’ll look to him again tomorrow at 10 AM, 3 PM, 4 PM. PD
ps The season of Lent begins next Wednesday (the day after our Pancake Dinner!) and this year, there is a six-week Journey of Prayer into God’s Love for You that I’m proposing we each begin on Sunday, March 6. It is a document edited by a new friend, Dale Gish, whom I met in Phoenix at the Spiritual Directors’ Retreat last month. We will send it out in this Tuesday’s email, attached as a PDF. Dale said he’d be happy to answer any questions you may have, on a Zoom call to be scheduled soon. PD
