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James 3:18 NLT
‘And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.’
My work as a mediator was carried out through Peaceworks, which as the name suggests, offered support to individuals and groups seeking to resolve conflict. Most of us prefer to live at peace with our family, neighbours and work colleagues, as opposed to conflict. As I have sat with conflicted individuals, the level of stress they speak of is off the scale and something that threatens their health.
Jesus reminds us that the peacemakers are indeed blessed for they are the children of God, a term each one of us, if we know him, can apply to ourselves. However, am I a peacemaker? Certainly I sign up to be. Yet, my life is more often a churning sea of anxiety stirred by resentment, fear, frustration and anger. My emotions, albeit hidden deep within, must express themselves in the life I choose to lead. As I have deliberately withdrawn from a lot of activity and focused upon prayer, many of the emotions that drove me are not easily tamed. Where once I might blame my circumstances as a carer dealing with a highly stressful set of circumstances, what is my excuse today?
Somehow I am dislocated from the source of my peace, Jesus, its Prince. Was it not Jesus who breathed peace into and upon his disciples before his ascension? Why is it, then, as an experienced, faithful and committed disciple I so easily lose my peace with the newsreader’s narrative or my interaction with fellow image-bearers of Christ? I am responsible to nurture that seed of peace sown within. I shall not do this as long as I maintain a programme of self-promotion, in which I place myself centre stage. It is only as I die to self, as mortality falls into the soil of life, that the seed of peace stands a chance of becoming fruitful and germinating. Dying is not merely the final act of my mortality, it is a deliberate choice motivated by the degree to which I desire to draw close to God.
QUESTION: Do you ever catch yourself criticising others, avoiding people, struggling to empathise or find compassion?
PRAYER: Lord, may your peace rest on all those who are filled with stress, worry and anxiety today.
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