OVERCOMERS With the Fruit of the SpiritSample

 My Peace I Give You: Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled  

  2 Peter 1:4 says we are, “partakers of the divine nature!” That nature blossoms in our life through the fruit of the Spirit, guiding our personality in God’s direction and shaping our identity. It blossomed the same way in Jesus as the fruit of peace ripened to full measure throughout His life — so much so that He could literally give us His peace through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The peace Jesus walked in, like His Joy, came through the Holy Spirit and was in full force, even in times of danger.  

Matthew 8: 2-3 recounts a leper coming to Him asking to be healed. The Lord’s response in Verse 3 was, “And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” It was a dangerous move as Jesus was fully human and leprosy was an infectious, life-threatening disease transmitted through airborne exposure. Jesus could have just healed the suffering leper with a word never getting anywhere near him. Instead, He chose to touch a man who people avoided like their life depended on it — because it did. Jesus wasn’t being reckless, He was doing His Father’s will and had peace doing it. Anybody else wouldn’t touch a leper, but Jesus wasn’t just anybody. He was and is the only one opening His arms to all people to “…work the works of God.” 

And now we are His arms of love in this world as He works the works of God through us. We are given the same peace He had through the Holy Spirit — His peace, not the world’s peace, that is a tired sound bite for beauty pageants. 

In this world we will have trouble, but each one of us can know peace because the Prince of Peace rules our hearts through His Spirit — whose fruit of peace grows through the things He has spoken to us (John 16:33).