Peace is always with us, available to us, in us.
Sometimes, peace is hard to access. Sometimes it is sought by pushing other uncomfortable feelings away or finding different circumstances.
Yet, peace can be with us always – the very presence of Christ within – even when we are feeling most afraid, ashamed or closed off from others.
If we parse out the Greek word for peace, which is eirene, we discover nuances of it’s meaning extending beyond just harmony and tranquility. It includes an inner posture of friendliness that has a reconciling quality to it. It’s like there is this quality of inner tranquility available within each of us that can be friendly towards all the other feelings and emotions that can reside within us too at any given time.
You might pause today as you go to pray with the text and notice freshly what peace feels like within you today. It might take acknowledging things that don’t feel like peace before your discover that it is there. It’s residing there – in you – like this _____ today.
Let peace be with you this day.
John 20:19-31 NLT
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
For Reflection and Prayer:
As you listened to the text, was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention? Gently allow it to linger, giving it room to form and settle deeply in your body and heart.
Reflect on what you heard. Relish the words. Notice how the word or words affected you. Which emotions are stirring within you? Notice what is happening in your body as you linger with how the text is affecting you. You might begin to describe that and choose to journal about what you are experiencing.
Respond to what you noticed and reflected on in your prayer with God. Might there a prayer that rises within you?
Rest in God as you simply be and entrust yourself to God in the quiet.