# 25 - My peace I give to you

25. John 14:27

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful. — 
John 14:27

This is one of the Bible’s greatest verses about inner peace, spoken by our Lord in His upper room discourse (John 13-17) on the night He was betrayed. As the disciples listened to Jesus speaking that night, they must have cringed at the second and third words of the verse: I leave. Throughout the upper room discourse, Jesus sought to prepare His disciples for His death, resurrection, and departure from earth. But as He went to the cross, to the grave, and into the skies, He was planning to leave one aspect of Himself behind: Peace I leave with you.

And it wasn’t just generic or generalized peace. It was His own internal realms of infinite peace: My peace I give to you. He wasn’t bestowing it to them in a temporary, inconsistent, or conditional way: I do not give to you as the world gives. He was giving them a legacy of peace that had the power forever to banish fear and trouble from their hearts: Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.
Notice that this verse falls naturally into four phrases. You can memorize it one small sentence at a time. Realize that Jesus was speaking these words to you and me just as clearly and immediately as they were spoken to the disciples two thousand years ago. Once you memorize this verse, you can close your eyes and listen to Jesus saying it to you at any time.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

Norma Patterson of Portland, Oregon, called me the other day and told me about her aged parents. When they were in their nineties—her father was ninety-three—she came by to take them shopping. Her dad was in apparent good health for his age and had recently bought a tiller to use in his garden. The couple had their devotions together each morning and on this particular morning, the old gentleman had pulled a card from the Promise Box that said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27 NIV). They shared that with Norma, and then the old fellow went over to the easy chair to sit and wait for the shopping trip. He dozed off. When they tried to awaken him a few minutes later, he was in heaven. “How thankful we were,” Norma told me, “for that final Scripture verse that served as the closing benediction to my father’s earthly life.”

So precious indeed is peace that it was the one legacy left us by our departing Lord. —

A. B. Simpson

* 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart.