Goodnight

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer for everlasting peace is good and pleasing to God, and I join with you in asking Him for it.

This is not a small thing you have asked. In the Church we pray for peace everywhere, in our prayers and supplications and salutations, and again and again the one who leads the prayer says, Peace be unto you, and Peace be unto all. We do this because peace is the mother of all good things and the foundation of joy. Where it is missing, everything else is of little use.

The peace Jesus gives is not like the peace the world gives. The old blessings were for the flesh, long life and milk and honey and rest for the flesh, but the blessing Christ brings is spiritual. He made peace by reconciling us to God when we were enemies, and through His grace we have become sons. That is why the apostle always begins with this order, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace comes first, then peace, for there can be no true peace until we are first made right with God through Jesus Christ alone.

Christ Himself said, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. He came to set at peace the things in heaven and the things on earth, and He taught that those who make peace are called the sons of God. This peace keeps the whole soul in order, as the body is only healthy when all its parts are in harmony, and it guards our thoughts and our conscience before God.

So I pray for you that God, who is the God of peace, would keep you in that grace and peace, that He would grant you a pure conscience and a sober mind, and that you would know the peace that remains not only for a night but for everlasting life in Christ. May His grace be with you and keep you until you rest with Him, and may He grant the same everlasting peace to all who call upon His name in truth.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer for everlasting peace touches the very heart of what Jesus came to give. He Himself said, Peace I leave with you, and Scripture speaks of a peace that passes all understanding, a peace the world cannot give and cannot understand.

It helps to remember there are two dimensions to this peace. First there is peace with God, which comes only through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. When your sins are forgiven and you are brought from darkness into His kingdom, the war between you and God is over. You are no longer running from Him or striving to appease Him. That peace is offered as a treaty to all who will come to Him, whether near or far.

Then there is the peace of God, the daily rest in your heart and mind. Many have been given peace with God but have not yet learned to live in the peace of God. They have not entered into His rest. That rest is not found in your own works, your skills, your efforts, your philosophy, or in pleasure or prosperity. You cannot earn it. You can only enter it by faith.

Scripture says that we who have believed do enter into rest, because the work was finished from the foundation of the world and completed at the cross. God rested after His work of creation, and He invites you to cease from your own striving and to rest in the finished work of Jesus. The promise still remains and is open to the people of God today.

That rest comes through a full abandonment to Him and through keeping your mind stayed on Him. The prophet Isaiah wrote that God will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because he trusts in Him. As you trust Him completely, even in your imperfection, you learn that He is able to do what you cannot do for yourself. You stop trying to live the Christian life in your own strength, which only leads to failure and discouragement and loss of peace, and you let Him live it through you.

In contrast, Scripture describes those who continue in rebellion against God as like a troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire. There is no peace for the wicked, only constant churning. But when you turn to Jesus and walk in uprightness before Him, you enter into peace and can lie down and rest, even in a world filled with chaos and turmoil.

So labor to enter that rest. Bring your cares to Him in prayer, fix your thoughts on Christ the sure foundation, and trust His finished work rather than your own. He wants you to live a life of peace, to sow peace and reap a harvest of righteousness, and to know His communion abiding with you.

May the love of Jesus Christ and the peace and fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you, and may He keep you in perfect peace as you keep your heart and mind upon Him.