Making Peace

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

I would venture to say that there is one in every circle of friends. You know the person that cannot stand for anyone in the group to not get along with each other. They are the person that wants everyone to be happy at all times in all activities. I was never that person. I always had an opinion and I did not really concern myself with the fact that it might differ with one of my closest friends. If it was on the matter of an activity, I did not have a problem leaving the group to do my own thing if they were going to be participating in something that I did not enjoy. I don’t think that Jesus was talking about that kind of peacemaker or peacekeeper in this teaching.The kind of peacemaker that Jesus was talking about here was the kind of person that would follow in His example. When we accepted Jesus into our hearts as the Lord and Savior of our lives, we also accepted the peace that He made on our behalf with the Father. Jesus died to pay the price we could never afford for our sins and iniquities so that we could be reconciled back to God. He opened the communication relationship between us and God so that we could once again be in fellowship.As recipients of this peace, we also need to be peacemakers. There is no way that we could do the same thing Jesus did, in terms of His death and resurrection, and have the same results He did, that is not what I am trying to imply. We can, however, introduce people around us to the individual who can reconcile them back to the Father and restore the fellowship that does not exist until that reconciliation has taken place. We can lead people into the knowledge that there is indeed a lacking in their lives if they do not have this fellowship with God. In doing this we then become peacemakers, as Jesus talks about in this verse. When we help people realize there is a need for fellowship with the Father, and then help lead them to the source of reconciliation we are helping to unite the Body of Christ in the same activity: pursuit of the changed life that only God can provide.

Father, I thank you for your Son who reconciled our fellowship together. Help me to see the ones who need you and need that same reconciliation to you. Use me to be the peacemaker in their life if you so will. Amen.