Last week Leo & I did a search on the New Living Translation site (for "peace" I think it was), and we wound up making an amazing discovery. I don't know exactly how many verses there were, but we found 3 PAGES of verses that had "May God give you his grace and peace" or something very similar. 3 PAGES!!! And not all from the same writer!
Now you could go with one of two opinions here. Either it was a quaint little saying of the time, or the writers really understood how much we need His grace and peace. We tend to lean toward the latter.
Since our Small Group topic was going to be about the things we strive for in life, this little discovery provided us with a fantastic closing for the night. After talking about all the things we spend our energy striving for in this world, we talked about this phrase that was used so many times throughout the New Testament. May God give you His grace and peace. Never "I hope you get that job you're wanting" or "I hope you wind up getting that house you liked so much".
May God give you His grace and peace.
Generally, the reason we strive for the things we do is to achieve peace in one way or another. What if we don't need what we thought we did to get that peace? What if He will just give us His peace? What if He just gives us the grace and the peace we need to walk through our situation as is? What if we don't need anything to change to get that peace we're longing for???
May God give you His grace and peace.
When the dust settles and the smoke clears, it's all we really need.
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