“Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the
things by which one may edify another.” Romans 14:19
As I near the end of 2013 and the end of
my first year of reading the Bible in its entirety, I am struck by one thing,
how much the children of God have to fight for peace. For those who do not have complete faith in
God, that is one sure sign of his existence, in my opinion. If the Disciples of
Christ were willing to give their lives and to fight their whole world in order
to have eternal life with Him, they MUST have experienced a greater peace when
they were in His presence than anything they’ve ever felt. The peace of God cannot be matched to any
other wonderful feeling this world provides.
It’s been a while
since I have sat down to write, and I tried to start this entry yesterday, but
my mind was blank. The only thing I could think about in regards to pursuing
peace and edifying one another was the unrest among people who work together in
my own department as well as the unrest of people I know in the community who
are more often than not complaining about one another or about what they cannot
or do not have living on an island so far away from the luxuries they are used
to having at their fingertips. I started to write about this, but felt it was
so petty and not important enough to write about in relation to this
verse.
Then, this
morning during my devotional time, I continued my journey with Paul as he wrote
his letter to the Corinthians, and I realized that life has always been like
this. The world has always been filled
petty complaints, problems, and quarrelling among people. The difference is
that the unrest, complaints, and drama surrounding Paul and all of God’s
apostles led to their death. They died
in order to bring to others the kind of peace that only God can give. If God’s first church was willing to do this
for Him, how much more should I be trying to bring God’s peace and edification
to others in my everyday, ordinary, very blessed life than Paul was doing for
the early Christians?
So many of us are
blessed enough to have been born in a country of freedom, freedom of speech,
freedom of religion, freedom to express ourselves and live good lives, easy
lives in comparison to what the people of Jesus’s time survived in. I am free to choose how I want to speak and
what I want to do with my life. So, why
would I choose to do anything that would hurt another human being, which would
bring strife or unrest into their lives instead of peace and edification? Unfortunately, so many of us find that easier
to do than to be a bearer of positive guidance and God’s grace.
I struggle with
not getting caught up in the gossip, drama, and complaining about the little
things of life. I struggle with remembering to give it all to God and keep my
big mouth shut when my thoughts are up to no good. I struggle with being the kind of Christian
the early disciples of God proved to be, dying for their faith. Would I be able
to do that? I don’t know. I would like to think that I would, but more than
likely, I would end up like Peter, denying Jesus three times before the sun
rose after his arrest.
I believe in God,
and I have felt that peace beyond compare that comes from faith in Him, but I
still have a long way to go in becoming like Jesus. Today, I thank God for his mercy in giving me
multiple chances to get it right. I thank God for his continual forgiveness
when I mess up, and I pray for His help as I learn how to be slow to speak,
slow to anger, and quick to bring peace, edify, and uplift others in my daily
life.
