Speak Peace

For the sake of my family and friends, I say it again: live in peace! (Psalm 122:8)

It is easy to get bogged down with the various pressures in life and let it get on top of you and lash out in one way or another at those around you. There is never a guarantee that we will live a stress-free life, but we can make an effort to speak words to soothe and bring unity and as we consider each other as friends and family today, the encouragement to speak peace!

What I love about this blog is that it’s a bit like the unedited backstage of what is delivered in people’s emails from day to day. I don’t get the chance to express what the process is that’s going on when I put together each daily thought and hopefully I’ll be able to give more insight into what’s going on.

So with regard to this thought and the power of words I know there’s some scepticism over phrases like positive confession and ‘name it and claim it’ religion. I share some of those concerns of a faith that’s nothing more than a shopping experience feeding into our consumer desires to have nice things whenever we want it. Also the kind of delusional living that is not faith based but is some of that excitable over-erratic zeal for what we think is God’s will for every situation side-stepping parts of the contract that includes suffering, persecution, misunderstanding, etc.

For all of that there is something about training our mouths to follow the example of the Prince of Peace and actually speak peace into our situation. What does that look like? Well first of all I think that looks like an honest ongoing dialogue with God that seeks to see things as He sees them so that you can say what He says about them. So rather than getting mired in another unfruitful argument with the wife over something trivial, I can see her again as God gave her to me not only for what she is now, but for the full package that I know she is to be in God. When I consider all that, how dare my lips dare spoil that pleasant picture of God’s fullness with a little blemish of a present that is soon past.

I reckon such thinking and second thinking on any given situation which desperately looks to please God in what we do has to look to speak the wholeness of God on the situation. Again this is not fairytale faux aspiring ‘aren’t things pretty and nice’ talk. This speaking peace maybe talking for things to get back in line – rebuking, correcting and even chiding self, others, stuff in the desperate desire that they are in line with God’s harmony for our living. In whatever way it’s expressed and with whatever words the goal remains the same in each situation and that is to see peace – that peace that passes understanding, that peace that the world cannot give to us, that peace that comes from godly wisdom, that peace that takes God Himself to give and that points back to the God who gives. Now in that situation surely everyone’s a winner – friends, families, hey even my enemies.

The gist of this is not to give something that’s as easy as pie, but is something worth aiming for in daily life. Again through taking a moment out to think through appropriate responses until the process becomes second nature to us (in fact preferably first nature if you get me) and as a result regardless of being bombarded with countless distractions (questions from within, unhelpful alternatives from ‘friends’, etc.), we can experience and rejoice in moment by moment victory in being able to speak peace even as Jesus was able to in those situations where tempestuous storms threatened the boat on which he and his homies were travelling.

For all my frailties, failings and flaws I work off the premise that I don’t have to work to gain anything from God. Rather, in the light of his mercies and grace to me as seen in Christ, it makes sense to show my gratitude by looking to be pleasing to Him by doing His perfect will for me life.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd