Perfect Peace Surpassing All Understanding.

John 14:26/27

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

• The Holy Spirit does not condemn the saint (1st John 3:20). The peace that surpasses all understanding in a world of sin and misery does not mean that we do not experience such things on this side of eternity. Jesus has promised to leave us with the hope of His finished work upon the cross and the (soon) coming triumph at the end of the age when He comes to make all things new. We cannot even begin to imagine a world without sin because all we currently know is what we currently see. We long for the New Eden. The New Jerusalem.

• Experiencing sorrow in this life is not sinful. All of us experience sorrow (some more than others). Sorrow is used as a catalyst by God to draw us closer to Him (read the book of Job, Psalms). I have experienced much sorrow in my own life, and even in my 18+ years of following Jesus, due to my own poor choices and things of the past before I became a believer, what I know in my heart of hearts (the inner man... 2nd Corinthians 4:16) is that while there are things in my life which cannot change, I can rest in the fact that God literally sees and knows all things, and that He is the One who justifies and judges righteously.

• Because Jesus Himself gives to us a peace which is beyond what the world could never hope to give us, we can have rest, comfort, confidence and joy in His sovereign Grand Design for each of us, even in the most painful of seasons. We can learn to 'be still and know' that He is God, and that He will wipe away all tears, and end this current reality (soon). We cry Maranatha until this moment in time finally comes.