“My peace I give unto you” (John xiv. 27).
Here lies the secret of abiding peace—God’s peace. We give ourselves to
God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed
“Peace, Peace.” But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away,
and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as
occasion requires. This is the time to prove the sincerity of our
consecration and the singleness of our heart. If we truly desire His
Presence more than all else, we will turn away from every conflicting
thought and look steadily up to Jesus. But if we desire the gratification
of our impulse more than His Presence, we will yield to the passionate
word or the frivolous thought or the sinful diversion, and when we come
back our Shepherd has gone, and we wonder why our peace has departed.
Failure occurs often in some trifling thing, and the soul failure has
occurred in some trifling thing, usually a thought or word, and the soul
which would not have feared to climb a mountain has really stumbled over a
straw.
The real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied
with Jesus.