Jesus Died for All: Living in Peace with Others

443/2/23Ugh! The state of the country and the world that we are being presented with has become nauseating. Listen, I’ve had something eating at me for a while now and I just haven’t put together what it is that I wanted to say about it. But I have now, so here it is…Jesus died for us ALL, not just those who think and vote like me or you. ALL of us. That’s a hard pill for me to swallow sometimes, but it’s a fact. But here’s the thing, we all are looking for the same thing, peace. Peace with others, peace with ourselves and peace with God. The easiest way to have peace though, is to first have peace with God. This allows us to see things from a heavenly perspective, which will lend to our earthly relationships. But we don’t always have that attitude, do we? Sometimes our lack of peace with others is because we’re stubborn and don’t want to meet in the middle when we don’t agree. We think arrogantly that our way is the best way. Another reason we don’t have peace with others is because we don’t want things to go well for them, either because they’ve hurt us or we’re jealous of them. We don’t want them to flourish, but instead want them to fail. But we can learn how to live in peace with others from a variety of verses in God’s Word by opening the Bible and staying in His word. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”Romans 12:14-18 But listen, even when we’ve blessed those who persecuted us, have chosen not to pay back evil, and been honorable in our actions, there still may not be peace. Why? Because people are people and as good as we try to be and as much good as we try to do, we still fall short of perfection. Not every relationship can be salvaged, but let’s do everything we can to ensure that we’ve done our part. Let’s love and BE NICE toward each other. Let’s believe and hope for the best for others. Let’s consider things from their point of view. Let’s apologize when we need to make wrongs right. Let’s pray for God to do a work in us and also a work in them.And let’s ultimately remember that people are not our enemies. We have a real spiritual enemy who loves it when we battle and accuse each other. If we blame people, circumstances, or struggles for our stress and lack of peace, then we are inevitably giving them control over whether or not we live in peace. Let’s not give anything or anyone in our lives this kind of power. There is only one person who can give us peace, and His name is Jesus. He is the Prince of all Peace. I will go back in my corner now, y’all be cool. Be Nice, Grace Wins