Sabbath Devotional :: Peace

Photo via Unsplash license courtesy of Ben White

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

Lately, John 14:27 is echoing in my mind, and I find myself flashing back to when I was 18. At 18, my family received devastating blow after devastating blow after devastating blow. It remains one of the darkest times of my life, and it was for a few years. I couldn’t see any hope of even a fragment of light at that time. There was seemingly no end or reprieve in sight. Just never-ending darkness.

During that time, I clung to this scripture like a lifeline, but I didn’t feel it. Couldn’t feel it. It didn’t permeate or resonate with me like I wanted it to.

I felt utterly blocked from feeling any semblance of anything remotely like peace. I waffled among feeling so much pain that I just felt numb, to soul-penetrating sadness, to seething anger, to confusion, to rage, and then back to numbness. Rinse and repeat. But peace I didn’t feel. Not even anything close to it.

But I believed in the promise of John 14:27–even then when I couldn’t really feel it. I was in such a place that for several nights for several months, all I could do was read that one verse and that was the only prayer I could utter or even begin to formulate.

No other words or thoughts would come. Only that desperate plea for this verse to be true, a desperate need for it to be true.

And eventually, I did feel the power of this verse and the promise of it work in my life. Not in the timing or ways I wanted, but it did come.

As I look out at the world’s comings and goings, the world seems to be in utter turmoil, and once again, I find myself clinging to this verse as my often sole-uttered prayer and plea that I can’t quite voice or put to words in any other way, just like I did then.

I don’t know a lot of things. But I do believe in the power of and promise conveyed in this verse.

So with all that is our present moment, this is the prayer I can share with all of you. A prayer for the world, for each of you, and for me, too.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27