Reconciled with God
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 (ESV)
A handshake does not create peace. Many people want peace. They demonstrate for peace, but they don't achieve it.
The inability to be at peace is a characteristic of people without God. Those who rebel against God cannot rest and cannot have peace.
Peace is not a holy feeling that comes over us in a church, it is the state of a heart deeply rooted in God. (Peter Stark)
Peace is an undeserved, precious gift from God.
1. How does peace express itself?
In the hymn text by H. G. Spafford it says: When peace with God pervades my soul, even if storms threaten from afar, my heart sings in faith at all times: “I am well, I am well in the Lord!”
“We recently sang this song in a church service, young and old together.” The song was sung by a young man who lost his father to an aggressive cancer.
- There was the couple who served the Lord devotedly, whose desire for children had not been fulfilled
- My thoughts went on to people whose daughter died tragically.
- The series could go on... How could these people sing:
“I am well, I am well in the Lord!”? - There must have been something in their life that was stronger than sadness and disappointment.
2. Peace, a gift from God
Through their closeness to Jesus Christ, they were given the gift of true peace:
- Peace that creates an unlimited relationship with God, the creator of the universe.
- Peace that enables eternal life in fellowship with HIM.
- Peace that does not leave us in the most difficult hardships of human life.
- Peace that enables us to pass on Jesus' love in a hostile environment.
- Peace that never fades: “Jesus, thank you for creating peace for all people through your death on the cross!”
3. Prayer
O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
that I may love where people hate,
that I may forgive where there is offense,
that I may unite where there is strife,
that I speak the truth where there is error,
that I bring faith where there is doubt,
that I awaken hope where despair torments,
that I ignite your light where darkness reigns,
that I bring joy where sorrow dwells.
O Lord, let me strive, not that I may be comforted,
but that I may comfort others, not that I may be understood,
but that I may understand others, not that I may be loved,
but that I may love others. For he who gives receives,
he who forgets himself finds, he who forgives is forgiven,
and he who dies awakens to eternal life. Amen.
A prayer by Franz von Assisi
Author: Egon Wächter
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