As we approach Christmas, our hearts need preparation. Not just the preparation of shopping lists and travel plans, but the deeper work of making room for the wonder of God coming to us as a baby in Bethlehem, taking on human flesh to dwell among us. This four-week devotional series is designed to help you do just that. Each week explores a different facet of the Christmas story: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
We invite you to use these devotionals each Sunday as a way to begin your week with focused time in God’s Word. Whether you read them alone in a quiet moment, share them with your family over breakfast, or discuss them with a group of friends, our prayer is that these moments to reflect will draw your heart closer to Christ our Messiah, Emmanuel, and remind you of the hope, peace, joy, and love that His coming brings to a world in desperate need.
Week 2: The Peace of God’s Presence
Scripture: John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
REFLECTION
In John 16, Jesus says that his followers will face turmoil in this world. He sets the turmoil that goes on in the world over and against the peace that exists between him and the Father. Even when sin pulls his disciples from his side, the Father is always present with his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus says in v. 32, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” His peace was a shared peace with the Father and with the Spirit, his constant companion.
Part of Jesus’s faithful obedience was living in that peace as a bulwark and not following the false peace offered by this world: whether that be the false peace of political might, or the false peace of tribalism, or the false peace of an inclusivism requiring no repentance, or a false peace of libertinism, which says live and let live.
Opposed to these, Jesus always lived in light of the perfect unity and loving presence of the Father and with the Spirit. This is his peaceful reality—the life of the Trinity, which, unlike the warring pagan gods of Greek and Rome, and unlike our warring idols, is one of eternal peace with no enmity, no rivalry, no dissension, no division. It is this peace which we are reminded of at Christmas, as Jesus came to earth to bring this peace of God to us. Every Christmas, we have the opportunity to renew our minds in the truth that by the Spirit we are united with the Son and in him we have peace with God. It is this peace which sustains us and allows us to “take heart” in the midst of a fallen world with challenging circumstances.
SPREADING THIS PEACE
At RTS, we are called to train and equip pastors and leaders for Christ’s Church who themselves walk in the peace of Christ. We want to form students in their own faith so that as they go out into a world and even, sadly, a Church, which can know the heartache of discord and division, they know and experience peace with the Father through the Son by the Spirit.
Jesus says in John 16:33, in so many words, “Keep your eyes on me…keep your eyes on me. I have overcome this world.” We point students to keep their eyes on Jesus so that they will eventually preach, teach, and counsel with their eyes on him. They will then lead God’s people not to buy into the cheap knock-offs of peace that flow like a torrent in our world but, instead, set their sights on Jesus and aim for eternal peace.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, Savior of the world, let your peace be with us. Prepare our hearts this Christmas to receive afresh the peace of communion with you and, thereby, with the Father by the Spirit. Strengthen RTS students and graduates to preach your peace faithfully this Christmas season, for the joy and peace of your church. Amen.
