Rest in Peace

Peace. It’s probably the fruit of the Spirit that we’re all yearning for most right now. In this age in which we daily stand in the face of the unknown, it is inevitable that our hearts feel restless. 

In our verse today, we learn that for those of us who are in Jesus and are given his Spirit, we are reassured of a mind that is shaped by life and peace. 

Here we see the contrast between a mind governed by the flesh, and a mind governed by the Spirit, and only one offers us the peace we crave. This verse sits in one of the richest chapters in the Bible, detailing the difference between the frustrations of life in our imperfect flesh, and the promises God has made assuring our future with him in glory. It’s when we step back and read this chapter fully, which I would encourage, that we see all the reasons we have to rest fully in the peace of the Spirit. 

We can fully rest in that peace for the following reasons: 

The knowledge of what we’ve been saved from

We know from v6 that the alternative to the peace-filled, Spirit-governed life is death. But more specifically, it’s a life in which our minds are slaves to sin. We can have deep peace knowing that sin is no longer our master because God sent Jesus to condemn that sin. 

The identity the Spirit assigns us

v15 tells us that the Spirit brings about our adoption to sonship: to have the Spirit is to be an adopted child in God’s kingdom. We can have peace knowing that God is a present and listening father and that when we don’t have the words to express our pain and frustration, the Spirit will speak on our behalf. 

The promises God makes us

The final verse of this chapter is a promise God makes to us that nothing in this world is able to separate us from his love. With his Spirit, there is nothing and no-one who can stand against us. Is there any statement as solid and sure, that could offer us peace in this same way? 

So today, let your mind be governed by the Spirit, that you may know the deep love and peace of Christ, that we cannot be separated from, even when we don’t feel it.