A. T. Jones
“PEACE I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
Where does He leave His peace?—“With you.”
Then when He leaves His peace with you, isn’t it with you?
Whether you accept it or not, is another question: but where is the peace of Christ, the peace of God? He says He leaves it “with you.”
When you leave a thing with a person, isn’t that thing there? Whether that person ever uses it, or pays any attention to it, yet isn’t it there?—You know that it is.
Very well: when the Lord says, “Peace I leave with you,” then is not that peace just where He leaves it? He says that He leaves it with you; then it is with you. Whether you use it or not, it is there, it is with you.
Then since He leaves it with you; and since it is with you anyhow, not because you are so good that you deserve it, not because you have earned it, but it is with you simply because He leaves it with you, take it, and enjoy it.
Yet more than this: He says, “My peace I give to you.”
When He gives it to you, doesn’t it belong to you? Isn’t it, then, yours?
When you give something to a person, do you not count that the thing belongs to that person? And if he doubts that it does belong to him, and treats both you and it as if it does not belong to him, then are you not disappointed and grieved?—You know you are.
Yet the Lord says, and for O so long has said, “My peace I give to you.”
Then when He has given it to you, doesn’t it belong to you? Assuredly it does.
Yet have you gone on all these days and years without it? And do you still go on without it? Do you doubt that it really belongs to you? Do you treat both the Lord and His gift as if the gift did not belong to you? Why will you so disappoint and grieve him?
“My peace I give to you.” It belongs to you, then. Why not, then, accept it, thank Him for it, and enjoy it?
“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Do not try to make it rule: let it. Do not try to let it rule: simply let it.
The peace of God wants to rule in your heart and life. It will rule if you will only let it: let it.
And when you let it, then “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).
It will keep both your heart and your mind: you yourself can do neither. Let the peace of God rule and keep.
It will, if only you will let it: let it.
Then, too, the Spirit of God will rule in your heart, and keep your mind; for the peace of God in the life is the fruit of the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is. . . peace.”
“Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him.” “The fruit of the Spirit is. . . peace.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 12, 1898
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