Matthew 5:9 (NIV) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
From James 4 (NRSV) What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
We want to be peacemakers. Why then do we act so often like troublemakers? James tells us what keeps us from being peacemakers: You lust and do not have. A lust is a driving desire, a passion that seems to know no boundary. It literally means to overreach. It describes people who are inwardly disturbed by their desire and who blindly bump into others in the futile search to satisfy their wants. But, we do not always call these driving desires “lusts” or “passions.” We call them our “rights.” It is the way we legitimize our lust, and the winds of conflict begin to blow.
Of course, we do not need other people to have conflict. There is a force within us that seems to keep us stirred up and at odds even with ourselves. James says it is like we have been invaded by a foreign army that is waging war within us. The world tells us we can have peace if we will just exercise some control over others or over ourselves. If we can just make people do what they are supposed to do and what we want them to do, then peace will come is the promise the world whispers to our soul. No, James says, control will not give us peace. The only thing that will give us peace is surrender. Submit therefore to God. Give in to His work and His rule. Do this despite what you may be thinking or feeling, and you will receive God’s peace and become an ambassador of His peace.
One way we submit to God is by trusting Him. Trust replaces control with confidence and with wisdom. Another way we submit to God is to humble ourselves in the presence of God. Humility may be the most important contribution that Christians can make to peace at every level. Humility, rooted in trust, has the courage to acknowledge that the enemy may be as much in us as it is in others. There is that sinking feeling that sometimes comes with trust, though, and that wondering if we’re doing the right things. Will God come through?
Peacemakers have a sense of belonging that rejection cannot take from them, a sense of worth that cannot be learned in a class on self-esteem. Their belonging and worth come from a sense of doing the work of God, for it was the work of the Prince of Peace to absorb the hostility of the world into His body on the cross, and bring peace.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 14, 1992© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
No comments:
Post a Comment