Take a 15 Minute Retreat Today

Peace

Wherever today is finding you, consider taking this reflection to a quiet place where you can be still and encounter our God who meets us in the noise of the day and invites us experience his peace.

Read: Psalm 34:13-15: Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days...seek peace and pursue it.

Spend a few minutes in quiet reflection.

Read: John 14: 27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

Spend a few minutes in quiet reflection.

Read: Ephesians 6:13-15: Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, and the breastplate of righteousness in place, and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Reflect: It's interesting that in this letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul puts peace in the context of war, and that he places this bit of armor on our feet. Typically we think of peace as the opposite of war, belonging not on our feet so much as in our hearts, and suggesting stillness rather than action. But Paul gives us a different slant: peace is the thing that grounds us and readies us. The good news about peace, in other words, is that it prepares us for action

Frederick Buechner says, "Generally speaking, if you want to know who you really are, as distinct from who you like to think you are, keep an eye on where your feet take you." Buechner also says that, for Jesus, peace--shalom in Hebrew--was not so much the absence of struggle but the presence of love.

Remember Christ's armor today, don His shoes and walk forward in peace of Love.

Pray
Heavenly Father,
thank you for the gift of peace--your shalom,
a blessing of fullness and completeness,
your desire that all of creation be whole.
Help me to be an agent of your peace,
to share in word and deed the good news of shalom
and so do your will on earth as it is done in heaven.
In the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace,
Amen.