PEACE

Study the pictures below.

Which of the pictures above would you identify with PEACE? Most of us would choose the photo on the left...the calm serenity of the placid lake as opposed to the tumultuous roar and thundering of the waterfall. Right?

Imagine with me, if you will, a robin sitting on her nest on the branch just at the edge of the waterfall, wet with the spray she was so close.

The writer of today's devotion in Streams in the Desert presented just such a picture. He stated that the first picture...the one of the lake...was stagnation, the last was REST. Thought provoking, isn't it?

He went on to say:

"Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that ever lived; tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time until the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when the human bloodhounds were dogging Him through the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, "My peace" (John 14: 27).

But here is the best part of this devotion and the part that really struck me most:

Rest is not a hallowed feeling that comes over you in church. It is [are you ready for this?].....IT IS THE REPOSE OF A HEART SET DEEP IN GOD."

Now I don't know about you, but that is the rest or peace I long for. A peace that is more than just the absence of turmoil or conflict, though I LOVE that kind of peace. This rest.....this peace is everlasting, this peace is the calm in the MIDST of the storm...just like the bird near the waterfall. Oh to have peace like that!!