“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.  And always be thankful.” (Col. 3:15 NLT).

We live in a chaotic world.  This chaos is the result of living in a world that is enveloped and governed by sin.  Division strife and conflict is everywhere.  Sadly, discontentment, bickering, strife and turmoil is the norm rather than  the exception.
We see and hear it in the newscasts daily.  It is pervasive in individuals, families, communities, organizations and nations.  This chaos is the result of sin which expresses itself through selfishness and a self centeredness.  It even impacts churches, whenever God’s people take their eyes off of Jesus and become distracted and focused on  the weaknesses, flaws, failures, and imperfections of others within the Body of Christ.  It is interesting to note how we somehow expect and even demand that others,  walk more perfectly than we do; all the while forgetting that we  also have feet of clay and are usually blinded to our own flaws.  We deceive ourselves into thinking that our weaknesses and flaws, which we even may acknowledge,  are not nearly as bad as those we see in others (Mat. 7:3-5).   

But into this chaos comes Christ!  And with Him comes His peace!  It is His gift to us;  personally and corporately.  It is available to  our family,  our community and our fellowship.  One of the amazing things about Jesus was that He was always at peace.  He rested in the Peace of God, the Father.   He was never anxious.  He was never worried.  Jesus  was at perfect peace even when the ship  carrying Him was tossed on the waves and appeared (at least to His disciples) to be sinking (Mat. 8: 24-27).  As He  stood before Pilate, knowing full well what awaited Him, He was a peace!  He was at peace because He had fully committed Himself into the hands of His Heavenly Father (Mat. 26: 39-46). and He completely trusted  Him to take care of Him in and through all circumstances.  (John 18: 36-37).   

This same peace is available to every follower of Christ.  It comes with our salvation. It is a part of living and being in Christ. But notice the passage: “let the peace of God, that comes from Christ, rule your hearts.”  The peace comes from Christ, but we  must allow (or let) His peace  rule and reign!  We do that by surrendering ourselves unto Him, relinquishing the chaos to Him, and letting His peace lift us above the chaos. The chaos may not change but we change. We change our perspective and we change our position. And because we have chosen to surrender ourselves and our chaos to Him, His peace is then released so that it can have full reign in our lives. 

James W. Black