Lord I want people to be quiet inside and feel your peace through me. I know that your Holy Spirit can give true peace to our hearts. Guide me to bring this peace, each day, to others and to help them apply it to their lives. Help me to fill them with the courage to obey the messages you give to them. Let them feel through your words your deep love for them, that they may know the peace you have promised. Thank you, Lord, for continually speaking words of love through me, even when I block them out in my life. Be patient with me as I slowly create quiet spaces in my life and others for you. You are so good to me, and I love you. Amen.
Prayer To be a Peacemaker
Lord I want people to be quiet inside and feel your peace through me. I know that your Holy Spirit can give true peace to our hearts. Guide me to bring this peace, each day, to others and to help them apply it to their lives. Help me to fill them with the courage to obey the messages you give to them. Let them feel through your words your deep love for them, that they may know the peace you have promised. Thank you, Lord, for continually speaking words of love through me, even when I block them out in my life. Be patient with me as I slowly create quiet spaces in my life and others for you. You are so good to me, and I love you. Amen.
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How do we make peace with others?
2 Corinthians 13:11 Working hard at ridding sin from our own lives while diligently building others up helps achieve peace. Ephesians 4:3 Seek the unity that comes from the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:17-19 If you harbor feelings of revenge in your heart, you cannot be at peace with others. James 3:17-18 Commit yourself to the good deeds that are the mark of a true peacemaker. @Promise from God: John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid. The end result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the absence of conflict, this peace is confident assurance in any circumstance; with Christ’s peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. If your life is full of stress, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with Christ’s peace (see Philippians 4:6, 7 for more on experiencing God’s peace). Practical Application Measure yourself on these mental attitudes – 1 being LOW and 4 being HIGH: I have come to the place where I really work at keeping the channels of communication open between me and those around me. I deal with anger and disagreements immediately and don’t allow them to fester. I encourage those around me to work out their differences without hurting one another. The ability to harmonize differences between others without causing either person to “lose.” Too often we see peace as merely the absence of conflict, and we think of peacemaking as a passive role. But an effective peacemaker actively pursues peace by building good relationships, knowing that peace is a by-product of commitment. The peacemaker anticipates problems and deals with them before they occur. When conflicts arise, they are brought into the open and dealt with before they grow unmanageable. Making peace can be harder work than waging war, but it results in life and happiness. Prayer to be Pure in Heart
Lord, my life is almost lived, As I prepare to continue my life, I look back with gratitude for helping me be Pure at Heart. It was your gift, to nourish me, enlighten me and speed me on my way to eternity. And now I do what you told your disciples to do – I work at being Pure at Heart. My faults and failings, I leave to your mercy. Tonight before I close my eyes in sleep, I thank you for each of the gifts and attitudes your love has brought me today… Especially, Lord I thank you for the guidance you have provided me, to achieve being Pure in Heart.. Amen. Pure in heart-Q&A
8God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. Measure yourself on these mental attitudes-1 being Low and 4 being High: I have come to the place where I can be completely open and honest with God and others – transparent because I have nothing to hide. I don’t have to put on “airs” or to pretend to be what I am not. The ability to be yourself without any pretenses and allow the presence of Christ to radiate through you. Practical Application Humor has done a lot to help in spiritual life and to be pure in heart. A pastor told this story: After a talk from a Christian speaker, a Christian lady, was enjoying with some friends she met there: She told them: I got married at age 31, I didn’t worry about getting married; I left my future in God’s hands. But I must tell you, every night I hung a pair of man’s pants on my bed and knelt down to pray this prayer: Father in heaven, here my prayer, And grant it you can I’ve hung a pair of trousers here, Please fill them with a man. The following Sunday I told that humorous story to our congregation, and they enjoyed it immensely, I happened to notice the different reactions of a father and his teenage son. I received a note from the mother: Dear Chuck I am wondering if I should be worried about something. It has to do with our son. For the last two weeks I have noticed that before our son turns the light out and goes to sleep at ni9ght, he hangs a woman’s bikini over the foot of his bed…. Should I be concerned about this? I assured her there was nothing to worry about. And I am pleased to announce that the young man recently married, so maybe the swimsuit idea works. Pure in Heart
In the previous posting we introduced the attitude of “Pure in heart” as part of our discussion of Mercy. The precious attitudes covered were attitudes that dealt with the assignments and challenges you face as part of the training program to make the decision of loving yourself or God. Now we are going to look at an attitude that impacts the love of God you may have chosen as part of the decision. As part of that decision, we need to ask God to cleanse us from within, cleansing our hearts and spirits for new thoughts and desires. Right conduct (as covered under “doing the right thing”), can only come from a clean heart and spirit. Have you asked God to create a pure heart and spirit in you. In the physical world, deception is acceptable. In God’s spiritual world only honesty is acceptable. In order for us to be near God we must be working to be free of the evil things that would bring us shame in our relationship with our lover God. And one of those He hates the most is dishonesty. Because God knows everything in our hearts and minds. And when we are dishonest, we are, in effect, saying that we don’t care how our lover feels and thinks; we want our way. As lovers of God, our self-worth is based on the fact that God loves us and calls us to share love with him. We are His lovers now (that we made the decision to love him), not just sometimes in the distant future. Knowing that we are His lover should encourage us to live as Jesus modeled for us. The Christian life is a process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. This process will not be complete until we see our lover – God, spirit to spirit, but knowing that it is our ultimate destiny should motivate us to purify our love in anticipation for meeting our lover – God, spirit to spirit. To purify means to work at becoming morally correct; much as a person in a loving relationship prepare (puts on the right clothes, takes a shower, etc.) to meet his/her lover, free from any corruption. God actually purifies us but we must take action to show God that we want that purification. There is a difference in doing evil (sin) and continuing to sin. Even the most faithful lover sometimes commit sins, but they do not cherish a particular sin and choose to commit it again and again. A lover who commits a sin, commits to not committing it any longer (repents), confesses and accept the penalties for that shame brought to the love affair, and asks for and accepts the forgiveness offered. A person who continues to sin, by contrast, is not sorry for what he or she is doing. Thus this person never confesses and repents and never receives forgiveness. Such a person is in opposition to God, no matter what religious claims he or she makes. Thereby impacting their quality of life. If we do work at being pure at heart, we will be able to receive the attitude of “Peace” and become a “Peacemaker,” in attitude. Covered in the next posting. Prayer for Mercy
Dear Lord, we are surly tired in these days of want and need. We have not always loved You with all our heart nor served You. We confess that we have not always shown mercy to others, when You have shown it to us. Forgive us, O Lord, all our sins, our neglect, our indifference, our lack of mercy. In your mercy, O Lord, turn your face again toward us. Help us, we pray, and give us today what we need to support ourselves and our dependents. Fill also our souls with your shared love and peace. To You belogs the glory both now and forever; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Mercy-Practical Application
Measure yourself on These following attitudes – 1 bein low and 4 being high:
Prayer for Meekness
Jesus, during your earthly life you were always reflecting the kind of life we were to live. I also wish to live as you would like me to. Help me to do know how I may do this. Make me attentive to being Meek during the years of preparation for my home in heaven. When I do reach the point of my graduation to my new life, help me to enter it with the Meekness You desire me to have. Amen. Prayer to achieve Meekness
Father in heaven, provide me enough meekness to keep me friendly, enough meekness to keep me dependent on you, enough accomplishment to keep me eager, enough failure to keep me humble, enough faith to drive away rebellion, enough doubt to keep me learning what you desire, enough hope so that I keep on looking for better ways to serve you, enough sense to know when I have found them. And when I’ve done all I can do in one day, the best I can, help me to realize I am your child. Meekness
Let us start looking at Meekness now. The dictionary defines it this way: Meekness is the state or quality of being meek (patient and mild; not inclined to anger or resentment, submissive, gentle or kind). One of God’s followers (David) described meekness in a Psalm/song 37 as follows: Meekness hardly seems the proper weapon to deal with enemies. God’s war-fair must be carried out with calm faith, humility before God, and hope in His help. Jesus also promises sure reward (inherit the earth) for those with the meekness attitude. We were being shown that God in sharing his love, wanted to give us everything we need to make the decision (to love God instead of ourselves); this includes the challenges, assignments and the parts of the physical world we also need. God frees people from being in control of everything around them. He asks them only to do their best on the assignments and challenges He gives them to complete so they can make the right decision. As a reward for relinquishing control He gives us love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all trials. A relationship with God changes meaningless toil into spiritual productivity and purpose. We learned the importance of meekness, when as a child we saw that this trait was valued by our family and friends. Those who had it were well liked. David, in the previously mentioned song, called us to take delight in sharing love with God and to commit everything we have and do (our “way”) to him. But how do we do this? To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in his or her presence. This happens only when we know that person well. Thus to delight in our lover – God, we must know him better. Knowledge of God’s great sharing love for us will indeed give us delight. To commit ourselves to that sharing love program means entrusting everything – our lives, families, jobs, possessions – to His control and guidance. To commit to God means to trust Him, believing that He can care for us better than we can ourselves. We should be willing to wait patiently for him to work out what is best for that decision and God’s overall plans. Anger and worry (fretting) are two very destructive emotions. They reveal a lack of trust that God loves us and is in control. We should not worry, instead we should trust in God, giving ourselves to him for His use and safekeeping. When you dwell on your problems, you will become anxious and angry. But if you concentrate on sharing love with God and the mutual goodness that occurs in that love, you will find peace. So where do you focus your attitude. |