Peacemakers
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9
Back in 1983 the magazine Psychology Today posed an interesting question. The question asked readers, “If you could push a button and eliminate any person with no repercussions to yourself, would you do it?”. Sixty percent said ‘yes’. Frightening, isn’t it? We live in a world where so many want to put themselves first ahead of anyone else.
Are you a peacemaker, or a peace-breaker? Do you bring people together or pull them apart? It’s always easier to create conflict than it is to promote peace. If we want to be peacemakers, we’ll ask God to help us find solutions where there is conflict. Then go out of our way to find solutions that bring peace, speaking the truth in a spirit of love and reconciliation. Jesus said the peacemakers are blessed indeed.
If we want to be peacemakers, we need to know the peace that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, brings. A few days before He was crucified, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes" (Luke 19:42).
In this turmoil-filled world we live in, there is never true peace in a person's heart until Jesus comes to reign in that person's life. With the coming of Jesus, real peace became a possibility in our world. Christ is the ultimate Peacemaker.
Our world desperately needs peacemakers who know the peace that only Christ can bring. Peace in homes where there is constant fighting and bickering. Peace in churches that are sometimes torn apart by conflict. Peace in cities where gunshots ring out. Peace in our troubled hearts. Peace in countries broken by war. When you are a peacemaker, Jesus says you are a child of God who will enjoy the Lord's everlasting inheritance.
Our hearts long for peace, O Lord, in You. May we live as children of God and bring peace in a world overrun with unrest. In the name of the Prince of Peace, we pray. Amen.