Blessed Are The Peasemakers


Meditation

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
(Matthew 5:9)

I have never personally experienced a church split over differences between the membership, but I have heard about many of them. An actual split is usually about the many differences in interpretation of scripture, the application of doctrine, even changes in the style of worship. There are as many differing personalities in the Church as there are people. Some are very strong, whereas, others are very compliant. The strong personality usually will want everyone to follow them. When there are two or more strong personalities butting heads with each other, there can be a lot of discord. It’s then, someone needs to step up and bring the various factions together.
The challenge for the peacemaker is to get the two parties to try to understand the opposing sides’ viewpoint. Once they understand each other, they’re more likely to be tolerant of each other and willing to compromise. God blesses us as peacemakers when we try to find the common ground between differing groups. If we can remind each other how much we have in common, like our mutual love for Christ and his love for us, and everything we are united about in doctrine, we can help them begin to see their differences are not that significant. God is disappointed with us if we join the fray by taking sides. Many congregations have suffered a split because no peacemaker stepped up to bring the various sides together.
God wants unity among us, not in-fighting. We risk pushing a new believer away from Christ if we are constantly bickering with each other. The unbelievers in our community will use a split in a congregation as a reason not to come into our church to find out about Christ. As soon as we see or hear about disagreements in our church, we should find a way to help find a resolution. If we truly want to represent the kingdom of God to the world, then we should be constantly on guard against strife and disunity. If we are a source of discord, we are fooling ourselves into thinking the love of Christ is in us. If we choose to be a peacemaker, we will receive God’s blessings.




Prayer Time

Heavenly Father the reality for the whole world is, there is none greater than you. Before we were saved, we tried to manufacture something greater than us in our feeble minds. That’s why we look to you now for our next breath, and we thank you for your provision. When we submitted our lives to Jesus, our hearts were filled with an indescribable peace. However, as life intrudes into the psyche of believers, some of us get overly stubborn and dogmatic about unimportant things, causing divisions in the body of Christ. They actually forget what their first love was when they were first saved. When we see this happening, help us to be the one to do everything we can to bring the various factions together in the name of Christ. If we are one of those causing problems because of our stance on something, forgive us and help us to become the peacemaker and end the strife. We know being the peacemaker will affirm our standing as sons of God, but causing unrest damages our chances to receive our inheritance. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!
Location: Hamlin, NY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Devotional for May 12 - May 18

Image
To all my readers: I am changing this blog to a weekly format. I am being forced to do it this way because this blog site is saying my blog is too short to continue publishing. I purposely try to keep it short so you will have time to read it every day. I hope you will understand and keep reading. Thank you, Brad Hopkins May 12 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15) Meditation Before I was saved, I worked in a very competitive environment. Many of my co-workers were very jealous of the accomplishments of others. I have to confess; I too would get that green-eyed feeling if I didn’t get promoted when I thought I deserved it. Outwardly, I showed a happy face. I would congratulate the person who was recognized or promoted, but inwardly I was terribly envious. I received as many promotions as most in my career field, but I couldn’t rejoice for others because of jealousy and covetousness. I didn’t know how to deal with grief s...
Read more

Clothed With Christ

Image
For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:27-29) Meditation The most amazing thing about becoming a Christian is that you are clothed with Christ. Can you grasp what that means? It means when the Father looks at you, he doesn’t see your wickedness; he sees his Son, Jesus. He’s not just standing between you and the Father, obstructing the Father’s view. Your sins are covered by Jesus to the point that they are forgotten. When you come up out of the waters of baptism, you “put on” Christ. You can think of it like putting on the warmest coat you’ve ever had and one you’ll never take off. When you’re clothed with Christ, the world should not see the old you anymore. They should see the likeness and the light of Jesus where there once was unpleasa...
Read more

Choose Eternal Life

Image
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25) Prophesy tells us we’re heading for times of terrible trouble, possibly in the very near future. The time is coming when Christians all over the world will be required to choose between living or dying for their faith, even in the United States. Some will think that denying Jesus will save them, and it will for a very short time, but their decision will condemn them for eternity. If I’m ever forced to make that decision, I pray I will choose Jesus. Here in the US, the persecution has already started. Even when a radical Muslim kills innocent people in a Western nation, somehow Christians are at fault and vilified. It will get worse and worse as we get closer to the Lord’s return. Right now, in some parts of the world believers are already sacrificing their mortal lives just for not denying Christ. Even though they die a horrible death, they actually save the...
Read more