Peacemakers 3

Activating God's Peace In You

There are many types of peace and methods to achieving them in this world.  Most of man's ways to achieve peace produce only a temporary respite from chaos, war and strife at best.  If we want to be peacemakers-true providers of the peace that passes understanding, we are going to have to have the right kind of peace.  Only through the peace that comes from Jesus Christ can we truly find comfort and strength for whatever we face.  

What Is True Peace?

As mentioned above, there are many forms of peace, most of which fall far short of their promises.  Why is it that man can't attain peace by his own means?  Why does strife, violence and contention creep into the hearts of men to pull us apart?  It's because peace isn't an attribute that originates with us.  It is from God.  

Christ was described before his birth as being the One who would bring us to peace:

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:79)

If we look at Christ's ministry, we see a roadmap to finding peace.  He didn't concern himself with the trivial things of man.  He sought to bring people to understand who God truly was.  Even though he extended himself to meet people's temporal needs, Jesus focused more on the spiritual needs of people.  Christ was able to bring true peace to people because his focus and purpose was on the right subject.

We can't expect find true peace focussing on the temporal things in this life.  There are political and social issues we can get wrapped up in, but to focus on those will not bring true peace.  We can look to help the poor and the hurting-and we should. However, even Christ put this practice into perspective when he said, "ye have the poor with you always" (Matthew 26:11).  Trying to good things for the temporal man will only get us so close to perfect peace.   No, the only way to attain true peace is when we choose to look at life through a spiritual perspective.

The Brother of Jesus Reveals How To Get Peace That Works

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (James 3:18)

True peace is sown with the fruit of righteousness.  Fruit is the product of something.  Righteousness is living in a way that is acceptable and approved by God.  We can only live this way if we are in relationship with God and continually learning from Him through His Word and through prayer and fasting.  James even claims this in the previous verse:

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)

Wisdom from God produces righteous living.  We have a series full of examples of what God's wisdom is and does.  You can find it here, but it only scratches the surface of the wisdom that comes from relationship with The Almighty.    This wisdom is pure from every fault.  That means when you read something about God's ways and wisdom, its faultless.  God's wisdom brings peace into our lives, its not harsh, and its message is easily obeyed because its makeup is of mercy and good things we can use.  Last and not least of all, it isn't partial to those who seek it and it doesn't operate hypocritically.  God's wisdom won't leave you out and it won't go against what it says or contradict itself.  You can trust God's wisdom.  Can we say that about anything man has to offer?

Change Your Focus, Change Your Practice, Change Your World

So, in order to attain true peace that allows us to then become a peacemaker, we are going to have to change our perspective and our practices.  If we'll get our focus and passions off the temporal and on the spiritual, we'll clearly see what it takes to find and exhibit peace. After our focus and passion is set on the things of God; if we will then allow Him to pour into us with His Wisdom and ways, we will not only learn what it takes to be a peacemaker, we'll be given the tools and the resources to exhibit true peace to a chaotic and confused world.  If we want to be effective ministers and servants of the Most High God, we'll seek and attain true peace.  With that great gift, we can truly impact and effect our world.

Activation:

Turn your attention away from your temporal focuses and turn them towards God and His ways.  Do this by choosing to either fast or remove completely certain focuses that keep you from being in communion with God.  Replace it with prayer and Word time.  In that time, pray for God to reveal to you what it takes to be a peacemaker.