‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ Rom. 14:17
Several years ago I heard Joyce Meyer speak about these three things; righteousness, peace and joy, and how they actually work in that particular order. When we receive what Jesus did for us on the cross and repent, He takes away our sin and we become righteous, which means ‘right with God’.
When we have righteousness we can receive the peace that Jesus freely gave us. ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.’ (John 14:27) And then, when we have His peace, we can have His joy.
I found this so interesting that I started testing it in my own life. And I experienced the truth of it. Even though I became righteous when I received Jesus, I can still feel my peace go, if I sin. But every time I repent and turn away from sin, peace comes back. And when peace comes, joy is so easy to tap into.
I have also found it really hard to have true joy, if I don’t have peace. Until I can come back to that peace, the peace that comes from Jesus – not the peace the world gives – I can’t feel true joy. That is why the third key to rejoice for me is ‘Start with peace’. I start by checking my peace, and if it’s gone, I seek to get it back.
When peace is gone
I think we all feel it when our peace is gone. Especially when we really open up to Jesus. He wants us to live in peace, so His life can flow freely through us. The Holy Spirit is very good at shining a light on any area where peace is missing, if we allow Him.
But then the question is, what stole our peace in the first place? Sometimes we might know exactly what it is, but if not, the Holy Spirit will always help with this as well. He will give us insight when we wait on Him and He will always show us how to get our peace back.
The most common things that steal our peace are sin, worry, fear and hurt. If we don’t deal with these through repentance, forgiveness, trust in His word and surrender to His will, it can turn into anger, bitterness and resentment.
Stolen or given?
Joyce Meyer also mentioned that we can choose to give our peace away. So, as I was pondering how to keep the peace, I also pondered whether our peace actually gets stolen or we give it away ourselves? In the second part of John 11:27 Jesus said; ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid’. (Italic is mine)
This showed me that being troubled and afraid isn’t something that just happens to us. We have a say in the matter! We can allow our hearts to be troubled when something unexpected happens, or we can do what Jesus said and not allow it. We can choose to give anything troubling to Him and keep our peace.
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Pet. 5:7
I know it’s not always easy, and many times our first response may be to give in to fear, worry or hurt. But we can always choose to work with the Holy Spirit and regain our peace, if we have given it away.
If we can keep the peace no matter what the world around us looks like, just like Paul when he wrote the letter to the Philippians, we can echo his words and rejoice.
