June 26 Reconciling Peace

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided. When your ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even your enemies live at peace with you. ~Proverbs 16:6-7

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though, for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~Romans 5:6-8

I will listen to what the Lord will say. He promises peace to His people, His saints—but let them not return to folly. Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before Him and prepares the way for His steps. ~Psalm 85:8-13

Thinking back to yesterday, what if we were to say that David died for Goliath? How would that sit with you? When we consider that we are all sinners, that because of our sin, we were once enemies of God, and that we all have issues of pride and selfishness to deal with, when Christ died for us, isn’t that like David dying for Goliath?

“Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for.” It is because of God’s love for His creation. God’s unconditionally loving character was determined to save us, even though we were trying to destroy everything that he made good. Because of His great love for us, our sin was atoned, or paid for. It wasn’t because of anything good in us. We were like renters who couldn’t make the rent payments. We should have been evicted, but instead, we were given the house! We were forgiven so much because of His love.

“Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” When we love Him back, we no longer want to destroy His creation or His plan. We want to live in harmony with Him, so we listen, do what He says, and grow in how to care for all He has made. We want to avoid the evil that threatens us and His plan because we want to please Him in every way. We love and respect Him and desire to give back what little gifts we can: praise, offerings of thanks. and service to others, because we know that this pleases Him very much.

“When your ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even your enemies live at peace with you.” The one who pleased Him the most was Jesus Himself when, in obedience, He allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross, for us, the created. Through His death, we, His enemies, were reconciled with God, making peace with Him. David died for Goliath so that Goliath could experience reconciliation and live at peace with David.

When we acknowledge all He has done for us then we welcome that peace. Pity those who will have to acknowledge God’s sovereign authority over them, and their guilt before him. while still being His enemy. “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)

“He makes even your enemies live at peace with you.” When our ways please the Lord, we can experience peace as well. Remember, our goal is not to be known as quarrelsome creatures, but peace makers. When we disagree, it should be with gentleness and our love for our opponent should also guide us, not our desire to win and conquer. It’s God’s kindness that draws others to Him. (Romans 2:4) As imitators of Him, we should do the same.

Prayer: Thank You Lord God for being my heavenly Father and loving me so much! I love you too! And You too Jesus, and Holy Spirit who stays with me, so I know and believe and want to love You back! It’s wonderful! It’s amazing! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: Reckless Love