…Let not your heart be troubled… – John 14:27, KJV

There are days when you just wake up jittery. The worries of the day pile on you the moment you awake, and from the get-go, you teeter-totter on the brink of screaming under the pressure.

On such days, our natural tendency might be to do one of the following: 1) face the day head-on, trying to make our way through the tall grass on our own, or 2) do something completely different from what we should be doing in an effort to escape the pressure by ignoring it altogether. The former is noble. The latter is slothful. But both approaches have a common flaw; they ignore the fact that Christ, not our activity (or lack thereof), is the source of lasting peace.

Hopefully, none of us take the slothful path when the day’s pressures are upon us. But even when we take the noble path and successfully knock out the challenges of the day, we find that the peace that comes from personal accomplishment is a temporary peace. The morrow brings new challenges, and the day after that does as well. As a result, we find ourselves in a rut of constant stress interrupted by short-lived periods of peace, and we think we’ve accomplished something grand by making it to the next oasis of rest in the midst of a desert of worry.

God did not create us to live in a state of constant stress. He created us to live in a state of constant peace, no matter what our circumstances. As John 16:33 (AMP) puts it:

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

Jesus spoke the words of both John 14:27 and John 16:33 just before the disciples’ world fell apart. Very soon after Christ spoke these words of encouragement, Jesus was persecuted and murdered and the disciples fled for their lives. From then on, the disciples faced persecutions of their own as they worked to spread the Gospel. How were they supposed to achieve peace through such daunting days? Not by grabbing hold of the worldly peace offered by the human options above, but by grabbing hold of the lasting peace that Christ alone can supply.

The world’s peace is temporary and, therefore, worth little. Christ’s peace is everlasting and, therefore, worth much. When the external pressures of life weigh you down, stop, be still, and know that God is God. Commune with Him in your spirit through prayer and meditation, and let Him remind you that all you need to access the constant flow of His peace is to simply ask for it! Just be sure to ask constantly, as Matthew 7:7-8 instructs. If you do, God’s rivers of peace will never run dry.

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