Do you realize that we are commanded to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us? We can’t control what others do to us, but we can control how we respond to them. So, it’s a choice and we all get the choice of how we will respond, so choose to live at peace with your wife, kids, and world.
Biblical Mandate: Pursuing Peace in Relationships
Living at peace with everyone is not merely a suggestion; it’s a commandment rooted deeply in Scripture. Romans 12:18 instructs us,
"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."
This verse highlights the responsibility each individual carries in fostering peace in their relationships and interactions. Key takeaway: While we cannot control the actions of others, we can control our own responses, choosing to pursue peace even when faced with conflict or hostility.
Practical Steps to Peace: Embodying Christ-like Love for Others
Practically applying this commandment involves cultivating attitudes of forgiveness, humility, and empathy. Ephesians 4:32 advises,
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
By extending grace and forgiveness to others, we emulate the sacrificial love of Christ, promoting reconciliation and harmony in our relationships. Additionally, practicing humility enables us to prioritize peace over pride, seeking mutual understanding and compromise rather than insisting on being right. Ultimately, living at peace with everyone requires a conscious commitment to love others as Christ loves us, exemplifying patience, gentleness, and understanding in all our interactions.
Embracing the Role of Peacemakers
In a world filled with conflict and division, the call to be peacemakers resonates with profound significance. As followers of Christ, we are not passive bystanders but active agents of reconciliation, tasked with promoting peace in every aspect of our lives. By heeding the biblical mandate to pursue peace and embodying the selfless love exemplified by Christ, we can cultivate environments of harmony and understanding. Let us embrace our role as peacemakers, choosing to respond to conflict with grace, forgiveness, and compassion, thereby reflecting the transformative power of Christ’s love to a broken world.
Today’s Devotional:
This year, I am utilizing the 365 Daily Devotions book I received for Christmas, applying its teachings specifically in the context of fatherhood. It’s called WALKING WITH GOD by DAVID JEREMIAH. It’s exciting to learn from a new resource this year as we have tried different options the past two years and will keep working through this for 2024. For more information about the author and his ministry, visit DavidJeremiah.org.
Topic: BE A PEACEMAKER
Verse: James 3:18
Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
Today’s devotional kicked off calling out peaceful times through history and how infrequent it has been. It calls out how “our planet is not a peaceful place” but rather “has had more than 14,000 wars since 3600 B.C.” Let’s consider what God calls us to do and who God is calling us to be and how to live it compared to the times of “relative peace only being 5 percent over the last 5600 years.”
It’s your responsibility to be a peacemaker
Today’s devotional points to the lack of peace in this world. Let’s be the dads who are about being a peacemaker rather than an agitator, an instigator, or a fighter. When it comes to our marriages, let’s be looking for ways to bring peace into it so as to strengthen it and build unity. How about in our families, let’s be the dads who are looking to be peacemakers over exasperating our kids. Today’s devotional points to how God puts the responsibility for peace on individuals.
'Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. '
-- Romans 12:9-19
Building Blocks of Peace
So, let’s be the dads who lead by example and as such help the building blocks to be upon peace. With each building block being peace, it would provide and produce peace not only in our marriages, in our families, but also in our communities, nations, and world.
Today’s devotional closes out with this challenge: “try to create peace wherever you go. Be a peacemaker, befitting a son of God.”
“The peacemakers are those who are at peace with God and who show that they are truly children of God by striving to use every opportunity open to them to effect reconciliation between others who are at variance.”
R. V. G. TASKER
