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Being A Peacemaker
Having Peace
John 14:27 (NIV) Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Here is an opportunity for you to read this Scripture from the Bible as it being from God’s Book. If this verse is telling you what to do, then it is a law that you are responsible to obey. BUT, if it is a creative word from Jesus, then when He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”, you will accept His power into your mind, heart, and life. You will BELIEVE He has just SPOKEN the power into you to not let your heart be troubled and not be afraid.
You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have
My peace I give you: When a person has faith in Jesus, they believe that what He says is true. When He says: “My peace I give you”, you don’t have to wonder when that will happen, how it will happen, or where it will happen. It happened to you, when you read it! But, it can lay dormant in you. Now that Jesus has spoken peace into you, what are you going to do with it?
You Can Get What You Need To Give
Are you willing to apply The Six Biblical Principles to being a peacemaker? Do you DESIRE to have Jesus’ peace influencing your emotions? Are you willing to STUDY and find out how to take advantage of it? Are you willing to PRAY and ask Jesus to teach you how to apply it to all the situations of your day? Are you willing to fix your eyes on Jesus until He gives you the faith to BELIEVE you HAVE peace? Are you willing to LOVE people enough to allow Jesus to use the peace in your heart and empower you to be a PEACEMAKER? Are you willing to take FAITH-ACTION and start living on the basis of the fact that Jesus has spoken peace into you?
The Peacemaking Requirement
You Can’t Give What Others Don’t Want
What kind of peace would you be able to bring to a group of people who are like those described in Romans 1:29-31? Rom 1:29-31 (NIV) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
As you can see in Romans 1:29-31, a person or group have to be open to peace. You can’t just go around solving arguments, conflicts, disagreements, and relationship problems wherever you see them. As you submit your attitudes and character to Jesus, He will guide you to people with relationship problems. BUT, those people will DESIRE to be helped to get peace in their lives and relationships.
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They Must DESIRE Peace
Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. There are people who want or DESIRE to be helped with their relational problems. They know they should do better with the way they treat people. They are TRYING to do better; feeling bad they aren’t doing better; and looking for a way to do better. These are candidates for a peacemaker to bring peace into their lives. But, these people can’t just be helped to get along with those around them. You aren’t a mediator facilitating peace in a relationship. You are using the relational difficulties to help them find the spiritual power to live a life of peace. Secular humanistic advice and mediation only bring temporary solutions. If the person doesn’t have Jesus’ peace, then you can’t just try to make the relationship better.
Peacemakers Must BELIEVE In Jesus
Peacemaking consists of providing people with salvation, justification, and sanctification (spiritual growth). If you deal with the issue they are having with a person rather than the CAUSE of the issue, the relational problem will never go away. An UNSAVED person can’t truly forgive; they can’t understand spiritual concepts; they can only ACT forgiving, nice, loving, and teachable. Without the power of Jesus, you are remodeling the person, refurbishing them, repairing them, and replacing one of their problems with another. Jesus doesn’t just patch up our lives, He transforms them. 2 Cor 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Peacemaking is only possible for those who will receive Jesus’ peace.
Don’t Trust Your Skills
Gal 5:22 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, PEACE, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. If your attitudes and character have a certain amount of faith in yourself, you will move away from leading people into a relationship with Jesus. You will start giving advice, counselling, mediating, and training people on how to get along.
Give What You Have
The Six Biblical Principles must be used in helping others get Jesus’ help. The objective is to help them DESIRE Jesus’ help with their relationships, help them be willing to start STUDYING Biblical principles about relationships, help them start PRAYING for Jesus’ help, help them look to Jesus for faith so they can BELIEVE that only He can help them; help them yield to God’s LOVE so they can be empowered to have better relationships, and teach them how to take FAITH-ACTION and start basing their relationships on cooperation with Jesus. The first step into this is showing them the incredible benefits of receiving Jesus’ power through salvation and justification.
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