To Follow Peace
Topic: Peace
Ephesians 4:1-3
The effect of righteousness is always peace. If you are holy, you will be at peace. Peace is broken by sin, but the holy soul takes sin instantly to the blood of Christ. Peace is broken by temptation, but the holy soul has learned to put Christ between itself and the first breath of the tempter. Peace is broken by worry, dissatisfaction, and unrest, but the Lord stands around the holy soul, as do the mountains around Jerusalem, which shield off the cruel winds, and collect the rain which streams down their broad sides to make the people in the valleys rejoice and sing. Others may be fretful and feverish, the subjects of wild alarms; but there is perfect peace to the soul which has God and is satisfied.
When a man is full of the peace of God, he will naturally become a son of peace. He will follow after peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22). He will endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). He will sow harvests of peace as he makes peace (James 3:18). All his words, like those of the great Apostle, will breathe benedictions of peace. When he enters a home, it will seem like a living embodiment of the ancient form of benediction: Peace be to this house. He will have a wonderful power of calling out responses from like-minded men; but where that is not the case, his peace, white-robed and dove-winged, shall come back to him again.
But there must be a definite following after peace. Some temperaments of people are so trying. They are so quick to look at things in a wrong light, to misread harmless actions, and to stand out on trifles. Hence the need of effort and patience and watchfulness, that we may exercise a wholesome influence as peacemakers.
Adapted from The Way Into the Holiest by F. B. Meyer
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