Living Adverts - Part 4
8th May 2009
We've been thinking about the prayer:
Lord, make me a better advert for your kingdom
We become better adverts for God by co-operating with Him as He grows the fruit of the Spirit in us and by sharing it around. We've looked at the first two attributes of the fruit of the Spirit: love and joy. This week we'll consider the third: peace.
PEACE
In the Bible, "peace" means much more than the absence of war. The Old Testament word for peace is shalom, which means "wholeness" or "well-being", things being as they should be. It means being at peace with God, with others, with our circumstances and with ourselves. And this Old Testament meaning is carried over into the New Testament word eirene.
We've all experienced what it's like to live without God's peace, and we know that we need to be at peace. So it should be obvious to us that others need God's peace as well. We can bring peace to others, and we're good adverts for God's Kingdom when we do so. Jesus said:
Matthew 5v9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
But we can't bring peace unless we've repented of grumpiness and selfishness, and so started living in joy and love. No-one ever helped another person find peace by complaining or by thinking of themselves.
And we can't bring peace without forgiving those who sin against us.
Romans 12v17-19
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to
avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
The opposite of peace is, perhaps, disharmony or discord, the sense that things just aren't right. I expect we all know people who can turn a peaceful room into a disharmonious one.
We need to know peace ourselves. This comes from repenting of our sins and living in close relationship with God. We need a good prayer life in order to be at peace with ourselves.
And if we have God's peace in our heart, then we can share that peace with others.
When you're around, do you bring peace, or do you bring disharmony?
CONCLUSION
If you've followed this four-part series, then I hope that you can agree that every Christian can draw near to God to receive love, joy and peace and every Christian can bring love, joy and peace to others, and that to do so is a great advert for God's kingdom.
I hope you can also agree that every Christian, sadly, can alternatively bring selfishness, grumpiness and disharmony to others.
It's our choice about how to live our lives.
We can go to God in prayer, asking Him to grow love joy and peace in us, and we can choose every day to share them with others. Then, the Bible promises that:
All men will know that we are his disciples
We will shine like stars
We will be called sons of God
And others will find Jesus Christ - the source of love, joy and peace.