Choosing Peace

"Jesus died to end conflict."

AVOIDING CONFLICT should be our highest priority, such that we will bury our own opinion in favor of peace without having any turmoil within for doing so. We refuse to create the conflict in order to have our say, and it doesn’t bug us. Can we listen to someone talk about what we disagree with and, because we’re living connected all day, every day to the Holy Spirit, we don’t feel obligated to reply with our opinion?

Practice makes perfect, both in our relationship to the Holy Spirit, hearing His Voice, and in not replying. Joy matters more to me in the conversation than my right to speak how I feel. I will actually avoid conflict in conversation, at my own expense, rather than say what will stir it up. And God helps me do this. That’s what I want you to understand today.

This thought goes into the pulpit, too. Any speaker, speaking for God, what is on God’s heart, needs to avoid conflict. Period. It is not your job to correct the other person with a pointed statement, especially if they are not in the room, Or in the room. Scriptures included or not in what is said, correction is the Spirit’s job. He convicts. We pray for the other person out of love for them. Just the other day I found myself stressed by too much self-interest and so I did as Job, I prayed for my friends. I often pray for people in the Spirit’s language, but that evening, I prayed in English. It isn’t important how or what was said but that it took the cameras off of me.

“And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.” (Job 42:10)

We like to fix people. We just know what they need to see, but our motive is usually wrong. Or we deny that what we said was only to justify speaking at all. We do this about sermon subjects as well. Sometimes what the Spirit wants to say isn’t what’s on my heart. I could get bent over it, but I’ve learned to maintain my joy by letting my pride go. Sometimes, that means taking a step away. Time away, doing something else, makes the issue small. I always ask if what I want is really worth it. Is a bad evening or a ruined relationship worth “me” being first place? The answer is always no.

I have things I dislike to write and things I refuse to say. Don’t get me wrong. I work on myself every day. Anger is always a huge red flag that my attitude needs to be adjusted because God wants all of us to always be at peace, always at rest. In his interpretation of 1 Peter 1:2, Minister Rick Renner defines peace, shalom. I’ll put it below, and I ask you to study it and put it in your heart. This is who Jesus is, who the Spirit is, and the Father, who is the gentlest, most peaceful of all. And we are made like Them.

Jesus died to end conflict. He rose from the dead to display peace and to create peace in us. We can only be God’s children who make peace and live at peace by seeing strife when it rears its head and choosing to avoid it. We must trust God in our avoidance of it so that we bring His desires for us to pass. What we seek to perform will fail. What God does in us and through us will end well. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, good will on earth, peace to all men.

“Grace to you, that is, supernatural favor that empowers you to be and do all that is needed—and peace that brings cessation to wars in your life, closures to conflicts, and the removal of distractions. This peace allows a time for rebuilding and reconstruction, ushers in prosperity, fosters the rule of order in the place of chaos, and produces a calm, inner stability that results in the ability to conduct yourself peacefully even in the midst of circumstances that would normally be traumatic or upsetting. May this grace and this peace and all they entail multiply and proliferate until they abundantly overflow in your life.” (1 Peter 1:2, Renner Interpretive Version)

“I am always praying for you. Every time that I pray for you, I feel very happy.” (Philippians 1:4 EasyEnglish)

“Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.” (Philippians 2:3 NLB 1997 Tyndale House Publishers)

“You must not do only the things that you want. You should not do anything only for the reason that it makes you seem more important than other people. Instead, always think about what other people need. Do not think that you are better than other people. But think about other people as better than you.” (Philippians 2:3 EasyEnglish)

Photo by Anastasiia Krutota on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com