Peace to you who are near and to you who are far away.

The Lord is near…do not worry. Strangely comforting and yet challenging words to us from the writer of Philippians.

Yet again our collective anxiety levels are being raised by the arrival of the new covid variant and Plan B restrictions as we move towards the reason for the season – the birth of Yeshua – Jesus the Messiah.

How can we with all that is going on in the world around us find our way to the place inside ourself, the place where the Holy Spirit of peace dwells? And yet this is the challenge to us from the writer of Philippians.

Can we remember in the middle of our anxieties and fears, that we are to place all of this into Gods hand’s? Remember we are the walking breathing tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. God has called us by name we belong to Him. We are precious in His sight. You are beloved. You are a child of the King.

Because of the birth of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Christ that we celebrate at Easter we have now been reconciled to the Prince of Peace. It is the peace of Christ that we are to claim as our own.

Never has there been such a time when our need for God has been so great, never has there been such a time when our need for peace in our interior world is so needed.

This peace that we speak of is not a peace that the world can give us, or that can be found in the many things that we try to manage our anxieties and our troubles with, it is the peace that only Christ can bring.

This season, this moment, stop, be still, breathe for a moment, allow the peace that passes all understanding to quiet your heart and mind and receive the gift of peace from the Prince of peace.

My prayer is that in the coming weeks and months you will know this peace that only God can give, and that this peace will sustain you through all of life’s trials, the ups and the downs, the valleys and the mountain tops. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Revd Deborah Hamilton-Grey.