Hallelujah!
John 14:27
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
I stood in the hospital room of a dear friend and co-worker who had been admitted through the ER with a chronic condition that now appeared incurable. He was on life support and his body was failing fast. I learned that doctors had given Dennis twelve hours before they would pull the plug on the machines that were keeping him alive. As I stood in his room, I told him goodbye with tears in my eyes. I left with a heavy heart.
But during the night something unusual happened. No one knows how, but Dennis suddenly began to improve. Within hours, he was off life support and asking for something to eat and drink. The next day he was breathing on his own, and a few days later he was back at work—to the astonishment of us all. The first time I saw him, I kidded that his name ought to be Lazarus! The best part of this story, however, isn’t that God chose to bring Dennis back to life. Nurses said that nearing the time to take him off life support, while he was still unconscious, they heard him begin to sing. Though muffled by machinery, they could clearly tell that he was singing the Hallelujah Chorus over and over.
This is genuine peace—not the kind the world tries to win through wars and revolutions, but what God gives us through His Spirit—peace which passes far beyond all understanding. It’s what King Darius saw on Daniel’s face when he was lifted from the lion’s den. Nebuchadnezzar saw it on the faces of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when he ordered them out of the fiery furnace. Pilate saw it on the face of Christ while condemning Him to death. It was the peace of God—and it utterly astonished them all.
Our lives should be a doxology to Christ—a “praise of words” to our Sovereign King. Raise your voice in song today; you never know who might be listening.