THE GIFTS OF CHRISTMAS: Unwrap PEACE // How God's Gift of Peace Changes Us

Even during the happiest season of the year, we can experience fear and anxiety. God has a gift for us in the midst of this, though. Join me (Tosha Williams) as I share a personal journey of wrestling with sadness only to discover in a new way the power of God's peace. Even when circumstances don't change, His peace will change us. In this episode, let's "unwrap" His peace. Seek Him Speak Him!

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“The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace” Psalm 29:11 NIV

SEEK HIM: Devotion is Meeting with God in Our Own Lives! Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble,” and even in the best of times like Christmas, life can be challenging. However, God gives us a special gift, for in the same verse Jesus also said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have PEACE” (John 16:33 NIV). Jesus came to bring peace, so let’s “Seek Him” about this gift.

WHAT:  What is God saying through this Scripture? God gives His people so many gifts, including, as our key verse says, the gift of peace. This peace is God’s blessing for those who belong to Him. His peace is not just an occasional experience when life is good; it’s His gift of completeness and wholeness throughout our lives. ~ According to our key verse, who receives God's gift of peace? Are you one of God’s people? Where do you need God’s peace today? 

WHY:  Why does this Scripture matter? The world teaches us that peace is the absence of problems; God’s Word teaches us that peace is His gift in spite of problems. Jesus promised: “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). ~ What’s the hardest thing you've gone through? What does Jesus say about this? Why can you trust Him in hard times?

HOW: How does God want us to respond to this truth? Scripture says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the PEACE of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV). Instead of fixating on hard things, God wants us to talk to Him about these. ~ What must we give God in order to receive His peace? Is there something making you anxious or afraid right now? Let's pray!

SPEAK HIM: Discipleship is Making God Known to Others! One of God’s promises to those who “Seek Him” is:  “All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace” (Isaiah 54:13 NIV). As we learn to unwrap God’s gift of peace, others can learn from our example. This Christmas and always, let’s be sure to spend time being taught by the Lord. As He fills us with His peace, then our loved ones can learn to experience His peace, too! 

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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
At Christmas and always, god has so many gifts
for us.
However, in my walk with theLord, he's often shown me that
my hands are way too full of myown things to be able to receive
His gifts of other things.
And perhaps nowhere is thismore true in my life than when

(00:22):
he offers me his gift of peace.
See my hands, my heart, aresometimes so full of well, fear,
anxiety, dread, worry, control.
And when my life is full ofthose things, when I'm clinging
to those, well, I find I can'tvery well receive his gift of

(00:47):
peace, much less unwrap it andhold on to it.
Maybe receiving God's gift ofpeace is something that comes
easily to you, and if so, that'sgreat.
But maybe you can relate to meYou've got your hands full of
hard things right now.
You're trying the best you canto shove these aside, to put

(01:08):
them in your pocket, so to speak, so you can grasp the goodness
of this holiday season.
But try as you might, you can'tquite get a hold on peace.
If this rings true for you andmy guess is that this is true of
all of us at different timesthen I hope you'll join me for

(01:30):
just a few moments in thispodcast episode as we continue
in our conversations about thegifts of Christmas.
We started these Christmasconversations by talking
specifically about God's gift ofhope, and I pray that you've
spent some time with Jesus inyour own personal devotions,

(01:51):
perhaps guided by thecorresponding Family.
Disciple Me, devotion-drivendiscipleship content, and as
you've spent time seeking theLord about hope, I pray that
you're unwrapping it andexperiencing it like never
before.
I know I am, but here's thething about hope when we have

(02:13):
true hope, we can also have truepeace, no matter what life
brings our way.
In God's economy, the gift ofpeace is not the absence of
storms.
Peace is his presence in themidst of them.
Jesus says my peace I give toyou.

(02:34):
This is his present for us thisChristmas and always so.
The question is what are wedoing with this gift?
Is it just there sitting like awrapped gift under the tree,
something that we admire butwhat we can't pick up and hold
because, well, our hands, ourheart, our lives are so full of
too many other things?

(02:54):
Or are we letting go of thesethings that aren't from God so
that we can jump in to unwrapand receive what is from Him?
I kind of like that latteroption.
What about you?
So right now, let's spend a fewminutes talking about this gift
of peace as we continue in ourGifts of Christmas conversations

(03:18):
.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Welcome to the Family Disciple Me podcast.
If you have a real relationshipwith Jesus, then you're in the
right place to be encouraged,challenged and blessed as you
seek Him, speak Him.
The mission of the FamilyDisciple Me ministry is to
inspire devotion-drivendiscipleship, which is something
we believe every Christfollower can do.

(03:43):
Discipleship starts with aconversation, so let's get going
with that right now.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
It wasn't too very long ago in my life now that I
was going through a situation, acircumstance in which I was
broken, I was hurting, I wasstruggling, I was literally
agonizing over what washappening Now, during this
season, I must say, I was doingall the right spiritual

(04:13):
disciplines, I was having mydevotions, I was spending time
in prayer, I was reading theWord, I was doing
devotion-driven discipleship, Iwas speaking life and Jesus into
the next generation.
But the battle I was facing wasbeyond what I ever expected.
There were forces comingagainst me, against us, that

(04:37):
were deluging us with grief andpain beyond measure.
It was absolutely exhausting.
I remember falling into my bedearly one night because,
literally, I couldn't take itanymore.
I reasoned that maybe if I couldjust fall asleep, I could
escape the pain for a fewmoments.

(04:59):
Have you ever felt that way?
I know I have these really,really tough seasons of life,
these seasons in which we needpeace from God more than ever,
but sometimes find it reallyhard to grasp.
Well, at this point in my story, I'd been walking with the Lord

(05:19):
for decades.
I wasn't a newbie to this.
I wasn't unfamiliar withfighting spiritual battles.
I'd experienced this before.
I wasn't a newbie to this.
I wasn't unfamiliar withfighting spiritual battles.
I'd experienced this before.
I knew the truths.
I understood the principles,I'd even memorized what God's
word says about peace.
But, quite frankly, I was tired.

(05:40):
I was so tired and what seemedthe best solution at the moment
was just to go to bed.
Oh, but God.
God in his grace and hiskindness, with all his gifts,
chose that exact moment to speakto me.
It was nighttime, but clear asday.

(06:01):
I heard his spirit say to meI'll carry that for you what I
heard, exactly what he said, butI stalled with giving a
response.
Instead, I just asked what, andhe repeated his offer I'll
carry that for you.
I full well knew the that towhich he was referring.

(06:24):
He was offering to carry allthe things the anxiety, the fear
, the hurt, the worry, the dread, the anger.
The God of the universe wasoffering to carry all that for
me.
I had walked with God for along, long time, nigh upon 50

(06:48):
years, but I had never soclearly felt his invitation.
I'll carry that for you.
Now it seems like a no-brainer,right?
God offers to carry the hardstuff, so we give it to him.
Right, the deal's done.
We take what he has for us andwe keep going.

(07:10):
But in that moment I had to laythere and wrestle through
whether or not I could actuallygive up those things.
Of course I wanted his peace.
I wanted his gift of peace allover my life.
His peace, I wanted his gift ofpeace all over my life.
And yet there was also, I haveto admit, a little bit of
comfort in being angry or bitteror anxious or fearful.

(07:35):
Those are very, very familiarthings to carry.
And yet, in order to receivewhat God was going to give me, I
had to place those things inhis hands.
As I lay in bed, I consideredeverything that I was carrying
and in that moment, perhaps likenever before, I decided to give

(07:57):
it to him.
I literally pictured myselfplacing all of that into his
hands.
Maybe you could say I threw allof that into his hands.
He was okay with that as well.
But here's what I experiencedwith him when I did so.
Into my now empty hands, heplaced his gift of peace and my

(08:21):
hands were able to hold on to itbecause they weren't trying to
hold on to everything else andwith that my heart calmed, my
spirit stilled, my mind quitracing and I fell asleep.
When I woke up the next day, theburden was different, and it
was different every minute,every hour, every day.

(08:44):
Thereafter, the circumstancedidn't change.
It didn't get easier.
The spiritual battle did notlet up for many more weeks and
months.
The situation didn't justimmediately resolve.
No, it wasn't different, but Iwas, because I had let go of all

(09:06):
those other things I wascarrying and I really truly
received God's gift of peace.
The thing about that particularcircumstance that was so
riveting and changing for me isthat other people saw the
distinction, they saw thedifference and they couldn't
understand it because it didn'tmake sense.

(09:27):
It didn't make sense why I wasno longer angry or resentful or
bitter or struggling or justdying a thousand deaths.
It's not that it didn't hurtanymore.
It's that I'd given all that toGod and he gave me his peace.
And once I really experiencedhis peace in that situation, I

(09:51):
wasn't going to let go of it,not for anything, because his
peace changes everything.
Do you need any of this peace inyour life, really, truly?
I believe that all of us do.
Psalm 29, verse 11, says theLord gives strength to his
people.
The Lord blesses his peoplewith peace.

(10:14):
God gives us so many, manygifts gifts that we're talking
about in this Gifts of Christmasconversation series but this
specific gift of peace, this ishis shalom, this is his blessing
, specifically for those whobelong to him.
This peace isn't just anoccasional experience when life

(10:37):
is good, when everything is easy, when times are going well.
This peace, this shalom, thisis his gift of completeness and
wholeness, even when our livesare broken.
How can that be?
How can we feel that abundance,that wholeness, completeness,

(10:58):
when our worlds are fallingapart?
We can experience this becauseof Jesus.
We know that peace is somethingthat the angels sang about in
the Christmas story.
Luke, chapter 2, verse 14, tellsus that the heavens echoed with
their song.
Glory to God in the highestheavens and on earth.

(11:20):
Peace to those on whom hisfavor rests.
The Bible tells us that God'sfavor rests on his people, to
those who seek him.
When you and I and anybodychooses to seek him, he gives us
his favor, he blesses us withhis peace.

(11:42):
Jesus said peace I leave withyou, my peace I give to you.
But how do we receive his gift?
If the Lord blesses his peoplewith peace, if Jesus gives us
peace, then how do we receive it?
I love what scripture says inPhilippians 4, and allow me to

(12:05):
paraphrase this Do not beanxious about anything, but in
every situation, in everycircumstance, by prayer and
petition with thanksgiving handall of that anxiety and fear and
worry and dread and anger andresentment and all the things by

(12:26):
prayer and petition with andanger and resentment, and all
the things by prayer andpetition with thanksgiving.
Give all of that over to God.
Then the peace of God, which isfar better than we can ever
imagine, will guard our heartsand our minds in Jesus.
I must testify that Iexperienced this like never

(12:50):
before, just as I was about tobegin my Jubilee year with Jesus
, and I know that thatexperience will change the way
that I walk with the Lord forthe rest of my life.
My prayer is that you willexperience that kind of peace as
well.
Now, when it comes to the giftsof Christmas, I wish I could

(13:12):
tell you that I have thought ofsome fancy way to do a physical,
tangible representation of thisas you consider this for your
own life and talk about it withthose entrusted to you.
Alas, I haven't, but this is mythought.
This is my thought.
Isaiah 54, verse 13, says thisall your children will be taught

(13:35):
by the Lord, and great will betheir peace.
You know, as you and I unwrapGod's gift of peace in our own
lives, as you and I learn how tolet go of all the other things
that we're clinging to, and lethim take that as we begin to

(13:58):
hold on to peace like neverbefore.
I'm convinced that our example,brought to life through our
words, we can't just be silentabout it, we need to speak up
about it.
But our example, mixed with ourwords, our Jesus stories, is
one of the greatest gifts thatwe can then pass on to those

(14:21):
that God's entrusted to us.
This, my friend, is about seekhim, speak him.
This, my friend, is about seekhim, speak him.
This is about you and memeeting with God, then turning
around and making him known.

(14:42):
I don't know about what'shappening in your world, but I
know that in my life, just inthe past 24, 36, 48 hours, I
have encountered multiple peoplewho desperately need God's gift
of peace.
As I can share with them whatGod's done in my life and
continues to do in my life, as Icontinue to learn how to hand

(15:03):
over all the stuff and let Himcarry that, and then I receive
His gift of peace.
As I share that with others,then I get the joy of watching
them begin to learn how toreceive, unwrap, hold on to and
experience God's gift of peaceas well.

(15:25):
What an amazing joy and delight.
Oh friend, may the Lord blessyou and keep you.
May the Lord make his faceshine upon you and be gracious
to you.
May the Lord turn Hiscountenance toward you and as
you turn your face toward Him,as you seek Him, speak Him.

(15:48):
May he give you peace.
Now go with God, friend, livefor Him, delight in His gift of
peace.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
And share that with others.
Be encouraged Me ministry, aswell as word about our
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Sign up to be the first to knowat FamilyDiscipleMeorg.
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God bless you, friend.
Now go seek Him, speak Him.