“Let the peace of Christ, to which indeed you were called in one body, rule in your hearts…” – Colossians 3:15

There was a time years ago when I was under extreme stress. It became so bad that I could barely have a good night’s sleep. 

When I went for my routine checkup at AAR, the doctor on duty (bless his soul) asked why my blood pressure had spiked.

I told him the truth; that I was going through a very stressful period at work.

Then he tore out a piece of paper and wrote what he called the ‘Stress Formula’: STRESS = DEMANDS – RESOURCES.

He explained that when the demands exceed the available resources, a person automatically becomes stressed.

So in order to reduce stress, you must either lessen the demands or increase the resources.

“It’s all up to you; which of the two are you able to do going forward?” He asked.

In our world today, it has become ever so easy to be stressed thanks to the ever-increasing demands on our physical, mental and emotional resources.

There are simply so many pressures on us – education, workload, bills, relationships, ministry, immediate and extended family, insecurity, illness, nosy (and noisy) neighbours, just name it.  

“Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give unto you; not as world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.”

JOHN 14:17

In our Bible verse today, the apostle Paul admonishes the children of God to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”

When he says “let,” it means it is within your power to do it; no one else can do it for you. That’s why the doctor told me that it was up to me.

Secondly, true peace is “of Christ.” Naturally, life will always throw stressful moments at us; I mean even billionaires do often get stressed.   

Jesus told His anxious disciples; “Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give unto you; not as world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:17).

That shows us that inner peace is not necessarily the absence of external turbulence, chaos or turmoil. You simply give peace a throne to rule in your life.

Thirdly, it says “to which you were called.” That shows us that inner peace is our portion as children of God; we were called to it!

I don’t know how your year is going so far, but regardless of what you’re going through right now, peace and a stress-free life is your portion. Yes, you can claim it now in the name of Jesus!

 I believe that God is challenging us all to embrace this awesome divine peace amid a troubled and tempestuous world.

Rather than allowing stress, turbulence, confusion, perplexity and uncertainty to overpower us, it’s in indeed within our power to let the peace of Christ take charge.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you because you are the Prince of peace. May your peace rule in my heart always because that is part of my portion! For the glory of Your holy Name, Amen!