THURSDAY - Devotional

READ: John 14:27

(Answer the question/s below in your app notes)

• How can peace help us not to be afraid?

My sister makes an extraordinary pasta dish. She procured the recipe when she was studying abroad in Italy. Yeah, Italy. Over the years, she’s made it for our family countless times. The creamy marinara sauce is always perfectly thick, and the shaved basil on top always flawlessly complements the tangy notes of lemon.

I’ve tried to make the dish on my own a few times. It was close, but not quite as good. The cheese was stringier. The taste wasn’t as rich. There was something just a little off.

I called her to investigate. What was I doing wrong? “What kind of cheese are you using?” she questioned. “Shredded parmesan. About 8 ounces.”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s the problem. Pre shredded cheese comes with some sort of film on it. It changes the texture; you have to shred it yourself.”

Sure enough: as soon as I shredded the cheese myself, the dish tasted much more like the one I’d grown to love. It turns out there’s a difference between something that looks like the real thing and something that is the real thing.

The world offers a kind of peace that’s a lot like pre-shredded cheese—convenient, surface-level, and just a little off. It might look close to the real thing, but it never quite satisfies. God’s peace, however, is the authentic version. It’s richer, deeper, and doesn’t come with a film that dulls its flavor.

When Jesus says, “My peace I give you… not as the world gives,” he’s inviting us to something fuller and more genuine. His peace is the kind that settles your soul, not just your circumstances. The kind you can actually taste and trust.