John 14:27 NASB, Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
John 16:33 NASB, These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
John 15:11 NASB, These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
In these verses, Jesus doesn’t promise to give us peace and joy as some abstract gift; instead, he offers us His joy and His peace. There is a big difference between us experiencing peace and joy and experiencing His peace and His joy. Jesus himself differentiates the two in the verse listed above, where he says, “My peace I give to you: not as the world gives do I give to you.” His peace, as opposed to natural peace, keeps our hearts from being troubled or fearful. The obvious question then is, how do I get His peace and His joy to operate in my life? Here is the good news, and it is so good and so simple that most Christians miss it. Again, it is His peace and His joy, and neither can be separated from His person or His presence. So what is the good news about that? I am me, and He is who He is; therefore, how do I get His peace and His joy? Very simply, you and I are in Him, placed into His life, and therefore His life is already in you and in me. If I am in union with His life, then His joy and His peace are already mine. Most Christians spend a lot of time praying for things they already have instead of joyfully trusting in what is already theirs. I am in union with the very life of Christ, so I am also in union with all that is His. Remember, the Christian life is lived by faith, and faith is how we make withdrawal from all that has been deposited in us through the finished work of Jesus. We don’t need to pray for peace; we need to simply acknowledge the fact that He is our peace and thank him for it. We don’t need to pray for joy; we simply need to acknowledge our union with His joy, say yes to His joy, and thank Him for it. As I said earlier, I know this seems too simple, but simplicity is at the gospel’s core. Remember what we have said in the past, “The deeper you go in the things of God, the simpler it gets.” Never forget that the whole Christian life is the person Jesus and our inclusion in His life, and in all He is, and in all He has.