The Beatitudes Part 7: Let’s Wage Peace

_{Note: This post is part seven in a series of eight posts on the Beatitudes.}

LET’S WAGE PEACE
MATTHEW 5:9
“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, 
FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD.”

Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, said “My peace I give unto you…”  To be a peacemaker is to be a Christ emulator.  Peacemakers bridge estranged relations.  Christ’s primary mission in coming was to bridge the greatest gulf of estrangement.  Note, “There is one mediator between God and man…”

Tolstoy, the Russian sage, said: “Man is meant for happiness and this happiness is in him.” Happiness is often spoken of as coming into our lives.  It actually comes out of our lives.

Peacemakers are happy people.  Christ promised they would be “Blessed…”  Happiness is a by-product of a job well done.

Many people seem to be in a living hell because they do not have the peace Christ promised. A young man said, “I made myself a god and my god let me down.”  Such persons lack personal happiness because they lack personal peace and therefore cannot live as peacemakers. To be a peacemaker one must be at peace.  Right relationship precedes right result.

In the 200 plus year history of America there has never been a generation that did not know war; never a generation that had only peace.

Peace has been described as “that glorious, brief moment in history when everyone stops to reload.”

Those who work for right relationships show they are in the right relation with Christ.  Have you ever seen a miracle?  Oh, yes you have.  Have you ever taken a seed the size of a sharp pencil point and buried it under soil thousands of times its weight?  Give it the right soil, light, water, and nutrients and watch what happens.  That little seed will respond against the odds.

Every spring hopeful people bury little seeds to struggle against the odds.  Every spring, hopes struggle against the odds and emerge to bloom.

James, the son of Mary and Joseph wrote:  “Those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.”  (James 3:18 LB)  The peace principle prevails against odds as does the seed.

Personal peace comes by establishing a right relationship with the Prince of Peace.  Heaven is waging peace with you.

Kipling said:  “We are like islands and we shout to each other across seas of misunderstanding.  Like ancient Athens, Queen of the Sea, we need to send out our ships to all regions.  The vessels of peace sail well.  It is a heavenly breeze that propels them.”