peace that passes understanding

what do you think of when you think of peace? the absence of war or conflict? when thinking about the worlds current situations it may seem that peace is just a dream (i read somewhere recently that "fighting for peace is like having sex for virgininty"). how can people have peace in when there seems to be no peace anywhere? there is always violence everywhere and it just seems to be getting worse.

however, jesus promised to bring us peace. the kind of peace that jesus brings may not be the type of peace that we are expecting. it is similar to the joy that jesus promised. it is something that we can experience in our hearts-something that isn't affected by all the awful things that are going on in the world. peace can be elusive, but it isn't impossible to find. the peace that jesus promises starts in our hearts and begins to work through our whole lives. it is living at peace with ourselves. many times we let guilt ruin our time and we have inner battles because of the guilt we have. jesus came to rid us of that guilt. it isn't our responsbility to deal with it-jesus wants us to give him all our cares and worries and not keep it to our selves. we don't have to continue to have the inner battle.

peace also can be kept from us by our unwillingness to forgive others. we walk around holding a grudge and trying to think of ways we can get even with others. we rob ourselves of the peace that jesus wants us to have, by giving forgiveness. if we will learn to forgive others it will help us to have inner peace. when we refuse to forgive others it really sucks up our peace more than the other persons. if we hold it in most of the time they don't even know it or care about it. it will help us to have peaceful lives if we will learn to forgive like jesus forgave us.

then we can have peace because we receive forgiveness for our sins through jesus. when our sins are forgiven we can have some inner peace. then we will be able to live in peace even when the world seems to not be at peace. it is something to think about at christmas time-since the prince of peace came at christmas. have peace!!