Sit Down with One's Own Heart


Peace. Jesus gave us his peace. His peace transcends (is above) logic or reason. In other words, it doesn’t make sense, and it’s a fruit of the Spirit. Strong’s #1515 tells us it’s a set of favourable circumstances involving peace; it also has a meaning to be without trouble, to have no worries and to ‘sit down with one’s own heart’. I love that last phrase – to sit down with one’s own heart.

My Boy sometimes has anxiety; it manifests as anger. I used to react to the anger and fight back with anger. We’d have a yelling match, until eventually I would subdue him because I’m the ‘boss’ and I can threaten him within an inch of his life. As you can imagine it didn’t go well.

In those moments, I’d pray to God and he would start to release his peace to me and he’d tell me to lower my voice, and release the peace I carry. Instead of isolating my son as the problem, I hold onto him tightly and speak softly to him, saying, “Anger must go when peace comes in.” The tension in his little body is released and it’s almost as if I can visually see anger get up from his body and leave. What’s left is a tranquil heart and finally my Boy is calm enough to sit down with his heart and tell me what’s troubling him.

Peace is a powerful battle strategy. The shalom of God dispels anarchy and chaos; the fight simply is over, just like the tension leaving my Boy’s body, the spirits of chaos and anarchy (anything contrary to life and love) must leave when peace is invited to come in. Not only do we invite peace, but it is something we are as we live by the Spirit.

Jesus was a peaceful man; some have taken that to mean he was meek and weak. Not so at all. Peace is a state of being, of living in tranquility. It is internal but it is evident externally. You can’t pick a fight with a man of peace, he or she won’t engage. A woman of peace is not troubled. Proverbs 31 says she can laugh at the days to come because she has no worry for her family. Isn’t that a marvellous picture of peace? It doesn’t mean circumstances are forever pleasant but a man or woman of peace rests above circumstance, sitting down with their own heart with tranquility and contentment.

True peace, the shalom of God, only comes by the Spirit. It’s not as the world gives peace, which is circumstantial, therefore fickle. Peace by the Spirit is a fruit of a mind that rests on the Father (Isaiah 26:3). Amen to that!

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