Thought for the Day from Monday November 13 - Sunday November 19
These brief thoughts on peace are mainly based on the sayings of Jesus. The prayer at the end gathers these thoughts together, and can be used each day.
Monday
Matthew 5. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
This is the starting point for every follower of Jesus. Written into Jesus’ manifesto for the Kingdom of God is this unusual compound word. Think about it. You have to use energy, imagination, skill, and know-how to make something. Peace doesn’t just happen. It has a cost in time and energy. To be a child of God is have a family resemblance. We are children of a Creator who makes things, including peace.
Tuesday
Mark 9.50 “Salt is good but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Preserve your saltiness! In Jesus’ time salt was a symbol of wisdom, for example, well-seasoned words that lead to forgiveness, or loving support. If we have salt (wisdom) inside, that will make us think, act and behave wisely. One of the most important outcomes will be living at peace with one another. This ties closely with, “You are the salt of the earth” – which brings us back to peace-making as who we are and what we do.
The colouring is by my friend Ben, whose pen work is vibrant and skilled
Wednesday
Luke 1.78-79 “Because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
This is about the role of John the Baptist, who will point to “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Tender mercy, the rising sun, a shining light, guiding us into the path of peace. From start to finish, Jesus is the way of peace, God’s Son from heaven, the life giving light that illuminates a dark world and leads us back to God. Peace is God’s purpose, long before it becomes our project. Christ is the light that guides and impels us into the path of peace.
Thursday
Luke 2.14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all the peoples, on whom God’s favour rests.”
I know. It’s annoying when the Christmas carols start playing at the end of October. But peace on earth and goodwill amongst the people of the earth isn’t a message for one month only. Jesus has come as God’s peace-maker, the One whose life and death and resurrection, reconciles a world at enmity with itself, and with God.
Friday
John 14.27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not be afraid.”
The inner turmoil of anxiety, worry and fear – three of the great disturbers of our inner peace. At the very time Jesus is telling the disciples he will be crucified and be taken from them, he says, “Peace I leave with you.” We’re only human – of course we worry, and sometimes life is scary. But Jesus promises a durable peace, deep down somewhere in the core of where we live. We are in safe hands. Trust those hands, the nail prints are the proof of his love, and his promised presence.
Saturday
John 20.26 “Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Sometimes we blame ourselves for not being people of faith, the best of disciples, and it all gets a bit too much. So we lock the doors, play safe, keep our heads down. But the promise of Jesus to be with us is not frustrated by our locked doors. “Though the doors were locked” – love unpicks the lock, passes through the barriers, comes within our hearing distance and says, “Peace be with you.”
Sunday
Colossians 1.19-20 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross.”
The God of peace, the God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, the God who in Christ “breaks down dividing walls of hostility, this is our God, the Servant-King: “Come see His hands and His feet, the scars that speak of sacrifice; hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered.”
Prayer for Trainee Peacemakers
Jesus, you came amongst us as the Prince of Peace; and your way of making peace is to make peace-makers out of trouble makers.
Restore the salt of wisdom in our words and actions, making us conduits of peace and channels of grace.
Break through the locked doors behind which we hide, and stand amongst us speaking into our lives the peace that makes new.
Jesus, you are God’s Peace-Maker – help us to follow you in the paths of peace, as peace-bringers and peace builders, children bearing the likeness of the Father.
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