Mark the extent of the peace — “My peace” — and how thoroughly well He knew what He had, that He could give it to them! He had been tried, rejected, and had suffered; He had nowhere to lay His head, hunted like “a partridge in the mountains,” “the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” and yet He knew so well the blessedness He had that He could speak of it, in order to leave it to them. There was an unclouded rest in God, and God an unclouded source of blessing to Him, in all His path of sorrow and trouble, so unlike that which anyone else ever had. But “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” was known experimentally by Him, and was there ever uncertainty as to whether His Father heard Him? No, there was an unclouded certainty. Nothing could bring it into question. He need not put it to the test by throwing Himself down from the temple; this were tempting God.
If the Lord came this moment, would you have peace and be able to say, “This is our God, we have waited for Him?” If you have the consciousness of liking anything that God does not like, you cannot be at peace. Even if you have found peace of conscience about your sins, through the blood of the cross, it will destroy your communion and peace of heart if you like anything that God does not like. If there is anything not given up in the will, there cannot be peace; if you have peace, then if God came in, your peace would stay.
J. N. Darby, adapted