Two Lists for Peace
Renew and Reconcile
List of the bad stuff:
Have you noticed that if you don’t do those things daily, like read your bible, pray, worship music, whatever keeps you close to God, you tend to drift to a default position of worry, fear, anxiety . . name your own weaknesses here . . temper, anger, lust, lack of self control, jealously, unthankfulness. Or even just being over busy, ‘for Him’, you find the same happening in your ‘doing’ . .stress leading to being controlling, gossip, taking comfort in bad mouthing people, etc, etc
Hold on a sec though 2 Cor 5:17 says ‘This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!’
New means kainos in Greek, ie new, unused, fresh, novel, new in regard to form or quality . . Christ’s love now controls us! (verse 14), but as it says in 2 Cor 6:1 don’t accept this marvelous gift then ignore it!
In order to nurture this new life we must first be being renewed ourselves, then as God’s partners (6:1) work for reconciliation between others and God . . one from flows from the other and back again . . this can be a hard discipline sometimes, yet it does become a joyful process also
Renew Romans 12:2 tells us, ‘don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect’
Renew Short prayers throughout the day . . let anything be the fuel that starts a prayer even if it’s from the list of the bad stuff above . . recognise them and make them a trigger for a short prayer. For example, every time I get (my weakness here), I’m going to pray ‘O Lord help me!’ even if it’s with a huff and a puff! Reconcile recognize the bad stuff in situations more outside of yourself and say short prayers for the people at the time . . this will lead you to loving actions, ‘how are things’, ‘how can I help’, ‘can I pray for you’ . . . and keep at it, taking a further small risk each time, be on the lookout and thank God for these opportunities . . we have to be prepared to take wounds, this will sometimes happen . . yet He will Renew and heal us when we spend time with him. So you may need a quiet place to be with Him . .this will be different for us all . .worship music in the car, getting up early, last thing at night, making Him our first thought when we wake even if only for a few minutes
Then we will start to see in our own lives and others a list of the good stuff:
We will bring peace in situations and we will have peace, we will see healing and know God’s healing hand continually at work in our lives bringing wholeness, our doing will often be in Joy, we will see joy restored in others, we will be encouraged as we encourage. As we partner with God, life will seem brighter, more positive. A thankful heart will keep us in a state of knowing how blessed we are and how much we are blessing others.
We Are God’s Ambassadors
11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12 Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
6: 1 As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it.
Joy Blog 