Transcript
Speaker: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control. Galatians 5, 22 through 24.
Speaker: Peace, dear Heavenly Father. That fruit of the Spirit often seems unattainable in this world. When I think about how often my focus is on stress and chaos, worry and fear, peace feels like the opposite of what I'm experiencing.
Speaker: And so Lord, today I just come to you asking for you to open my eyes to the kind of peace that you provide, because we know in your word that you say that you have come so that in you we may have peace, that we will have trials in this life, but to take heart because you have overcome the world.
Speaker: And you also say, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. That verse, Lord, is so comforting and also brings up so many questions.
Speaker: You say that you have left us your peace. And we know that you always keep your promises, that we can take you at your word. So your peace is here. You have given it to us. That's what you said in John 14, 27. But you also said that you don't give peace as the world does. And so when I think about then what your peace looks like and feels like,
Speaker: and My mind is taken back to the garden with Adam and Eve and how they walked with you in the cool of the day and how they must have only felt peace. Like only peace and joy and love, the first fruits of the Spirit, Lord, you created
Speaker: And yet we're human and we don't live on that side of the garden. We live on the fallen side where you have come and forgiven us our sins, but we still live in this world where so much heartache and fear and worry consumes us.
Speaker: Jesus gave you to us so that we might experience your peace. my So I pray today that you would just speak a word on our hearts so that we could experience the peace that you offer.
Speaker: Help us to take a deep breath and breathe in your peace and breathe out all of our cares and worries. And help us to remember that when we don't feel your peace, we can still claim your peace. We can still claim it because you have said that it's here and you have given us the spirit who offers it to us. And so that is my prayer today, that in the midst of whatever trouble this day brings,
Speaker: that we could claim your peace, that I could claim your peace and hold on to it and trust it and to know that it will always be here when I need it. In Jesus name, I love you. Amen.
