Peace has to be carefully cultivated. It’s not something which grows, unwanted, like a weed in your garden. If you want peace, you have to REALLY want it. You sow extra seeds of peace, not just enough to perhaps have a tiny sprout of it. The Word has many things to say about peace. It usually grows with other carefully tended fruits: righteousness, love, patience, joy in the Holy Spirit, compassion, meekness, self-control. It’s not difficult to see whether someone desires it…you need look no further than his or her collection of seed packets!
A person who loves peace will not love (or instigate) gossip or damaging news–even if it’s factual–on others. A person who loves peace doesn’t fill his or her life with entities which cause strife…music, tv, books, internet articles about subjects which invite darkness instead of peace. A person who loves peace will sacrifice the pursuit of “stuff” in exchange for it…aware that a humble, low-to-the-ground, simple life invites peace, because peace grows in uncomplicated soil. A person who loves peace will find a quiet place in God, where he or she can escape the madness of the world if but for a little while each day. A person who loves peace will recognize right away when that peace is in danger of being violated, and will search diligently to rid himself or herself of any legal grounds for the enemy’s attack. A person who loves peace will break the habit of sarcasm and insults to others, because our words can either build up or destroy one another. A person of peace is quick to repent of wrongs, and quick to release others who have wronged him or her. A person who loves peace will risk being misunderstood…possibly even labeled “odd” or “stuck-up” because he/she does not covet the company of troublemakers, gossip-mongers, and drama queens. A person who loves peace will MAKE peace if necessary…being the first to apologize, aggressively going up against spirits of deception and strongholds of chaos; defending the helpless; despising the works of darkness but loving the people who are enslaved in it. The person who loves peace will stand out without trying to make a statement…because this world is so full of people without peace, that the peaceful soul gleams like a beacon in the night.
“Lord, help us to desire Your precious peace! Reveal to us when we are acting and speaking in ways which invite the enemy of peace into our lives. Give us a love for simplicity, for quietness, for rest, for bringing kindness and healing to others, for forgiveness, and for a life of purity. If our consciences are clean before You, we have a direct conduit of peace from the throne of Heaven! Help us not to hoard that peace, but to share it openly with others and to teach them how to grow their own peace through relationship with You. Your Word says that if our ways please You, that even our enemies will be at peace with us! We want to please You, and we want to track footprints of Your peace everywhere we go. May the words of our mouths, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable to you, O God!”
CALL THOSE THINGS 