Gifts of Heaven · Volume 3 · Chapter 408

Trust, courage, peace

24th June 1847

I leave you peace, I give you My peace! Not as the world gives, I give it to you! Do not become restless or fearful in your heart! (John 14:27)

[1] If someone does not understand this text, even though it is extremely clear, the reason is merely that he is not completely in command of his own tongue (mother tongue) and does not know what peace actually is.

[2] He who considers peace to be tranquility, both in the mind and in the mutual actions of people, is in very great error. If, for example, two peoples make war with one another, when do you think they will make peace? Certainly not until the courage of one part has defeated the other, which defeated part then submits to the victor, whereby both parts then have rest, and only in this rest, peace.

[3] If a weak man walks through a forest at night time, he will be full of fear and his mind full of restlessness, and he will make the nocturnal walk through the forest in the greatest discord of his soul. If, however, a perfectly armored giant Goliath makes the same journey at midnight, he has not only no fear, but only the greatest courage and take on everything wanting to meet him with hostility, with the most unshakable courage in completely victory. This fullest courage gives his mind the greatest calm and fearlessness and his soul the most undeniable peace, which no enemy can take away.

[4] If some poor, penniless person came into the house of a rich worldly lord and wanted to ask for the hand of a daughter of this rich worldly lord, how timidly he would approach the house! His mind will be full of unrest and his soul full of fear, so that he will hardly be able to utter a word on the spot because of the strong "discord" of his soul! But with what a completely different temperament will a son of equal stance of a prince approach this house! Full of courage and full of the surest conviction he will enter this house, knowing that he will be received in this magnificently rich house only with the greatest courtesy, whether it be for his even greater treasures, his power, or his prestige.

[5] But it now turns out that peace is nothing but the full courage of the soul, which it draws from the confidence, of the awareness of such abilities, with which it looks forward victoriously to every hostile encounter, which is to be of the usual kind and may possibly occur. Whoever lacks these skills, naturally also lacks the confidence and trust in such abilities. But where there is no trust and confidence, there is also no courage and therefore also no peace.

[6] Therefore, when I say in the gospel: 'I leave you peace, I give you My peace", it means as much as: I leave and give you My abilities, My confident full trust in them and thus My fullest courage; of course, a courage that the world does not know, does not have and therefore cannot give.

[7] But let the effect of this courage be that your heart does not become fearful or restless in whatever hostile events you may encounter here and there. I think that should be clear enough!

[8] But therefore you too seek such abilities, out of which an equal evangelical, true peace is to become for you! This is what the true "Hero of eternal peace" says. Amen.