Today we are continuing to look at the Fruit of the Spirit, as found in Galatians 5: 22-26:

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Well, maybe God is trying to tell me something, or maybe I’m not paying attention. Because I realized that missed peace! We were rocking and rolling through the fruit of the Spirit, and I missed peace! So, today, we’ll look at peace.

Let’s talk first about what peace is not. Peace is not the absence of conflict. In fact, we see in Scripture that Jesus is the prince of peace. And what do we see over and over again in Jesus’ life? Conflict. We see conflicts with the religious leaders. We see conflict even among the disciples. Jesus is the prince of peace, yet there is almost constant conflict around him.

So then, what is peace? It’s interesting in the Bible we see in Ephesians that Jesus is our peace. Peace is not a concept or a mental state of being, peace is a person, and that person is Jesus.

We have peace because we have Jesus. In many ways, peace is a lot like patience. It flows from faith. I have faith in Jesus. He is with me. He will not leave me. So I know that whatever happens in life, whatever I face, whatever I struggle with, I have peace.

Why?

Because I have Jesus. In sickness, I have peace because Jesus is with me. In pain, I have peace because Jesus is with me. In suffering, I have peace because Jesus is with me. He will not leave me, and He will not forsake me. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because He is with me.

I have peace because I have Jesus. And I know that I have Jesus because I have His Spirit, the Holy Spirit living within me. And when I have that Spirit within in me, producing fruit, what do I have?

I have peace.

Today, we have Jesus. We have His Spirit. He is with us. Because of this, no matter what you face today, you can have peace.

Because you have Jesus. All will be well.

If you’d like to get each day’s daily scripture reading sent to your phone along with this reading guide, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up!