"Seek peace and pursue it" Psalm 34:14. NKJV
As each day goes by, the world appears to be getting more and more violent and hostile - terrorism, murders, rapes and violence around every corner. The people who offend, mostly show no remorse as witnessed on recent news coverage on BBC TV. There has always been these things but not as regular as they are nowadays.We're living in the last days for sure.
Therefore, this is why we need to be living in peace ourselves and attempting to spread it around wherever we go. The Living Bible quotes our text as, 'Try to live in peace with everyone; work hard at it.' Just those last four words sum it up well, - 'work hard at it.' It is not easy to live in peace when things around you are pretty bad, and that is where patience and hard work are needed.
Take for instance noisy neighbours with wild parties and BBQ's that get out of hand. We're all entitled to live our lives and enjoy this but sadly, some people take it a step further and have their music so loud it can be heard in the next county. If we retaliate in anger, they may just turn the volume up louder. So we need peace to help us through, coupled with prayer. We need to be mindful of who we are - representatives of God; we also need to remember Romans 12:18, 'If it is possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.' A quiet word with a neighbour the next day is far better than going in with all guns blazing when they're in party mood. The weapon that we have and need is prayer. That changes things big time.
Then there are car parking spaces. If you park on the road outside your home, you'll be familiar with those who park in your parking space as soon as you drive off. The thing is, as much as you think you own the road, you don't and I'll park there if I want to. Joking aside, it can wind us up especially if it's raining and we have a car full of shopping to unload and we have nowhere to park. Again, we need to, 'Seek peace and pursue it.' It's not easy I know, but again, prayer works wonders. I ask God to keep our parking space whenever we drive off, and it works. Try it. I could go into great detail about the people who light bonfires and burn plastic, causing toxic fumes, but really it's the same thing and needs us to, 'Seek peace and pursue it.'
Grab hold of this verse in Isaiah 26:3 and personalise it as a prayer whenever you need to:
'You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.'
The answer to remaining in peace is to stay focused on Jesus, your whole mind concentrating on the one who offers everlasting peace. It is training ourselves to trust in God more and more. He knows what is going on and if you let Him, He'll sort it, and that's a promise.
Keep your peace.
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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