Peace Even When Facing the Worst

John 14:27 (CEB) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.

John places these words in the hours before Jesus’ arrest, which shapes them more than we often realize. This isn’t a quiet devotional moment. It’s a farewell. Jesus speaks peace into a room thick with confusion, sorrow, and fear. He knows what the disciples do not—that they are minutes away from chaos. The peace he offers is not the kind the world promises, built on the absence of trouble or the illusion of control. It’s the kind you carry even as the storm breaks around you.

I need to place this in context. Caregivers know this tension well. I have cared for our severely disabled daughter for 22 years, but I am not alone in this. In the United States, with a population of 400 million people, there are around 50 million unpaid caregivers, usually caring for a family member. Just about everyone will wind up caring for someone at some point.

In that setting, you know you can do everything right and still watch the night unravel. Stability today offers no guarantee for tomorrow. When Jesus says, “My peace,” he isn’t offering distraction or escape. He is offering himself. His peace wasn’t shaken by betrayal, arrest, or the cross. It doesn’t require good news or predictable days. It settles deeper than circumstances, meeting us in the place where fear tends to bloom.

This is where his words matter for caregivers and all of us facing challenging times. Peace, as Christ defines it, isn’t the promise that everything will work out the way you long for. It’s the presence of One who never leaves you to face any of it alone. His peace steadies you when medical updates shift, when exhaustion reaches its limit, when you find yourself bracing for what might come next. Our circumstances may not calm down, but his peace can calm us within them.

Prayer

Father, I need the peace your Son promised, the kind that holds when life does not. Teach me to rest in Christ’s presence even when trouble surrounds me. Let his steadiness become my own, and help me face each day without fear. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Donn King.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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