Wait patiently…
Month: September 2024
Reflection on Matthew 5 9
Scripture
“God blesses, those who work for peace for they will be called the children of God.”
Application
There is a difference between pacifism as an end in itself and the working for peace that is a result of our relationship with God.
The peace makers referred to here are people who know that they are reconciled to God and therefore work in all their relationships to bring peace, justice and love to other people.
When we are saved, the wall between us and God comes to an end. We experience God’s shalom, the real peace or harmony that can only exist when we are walking in fellowship with the Lord.
God’s peace has four dimensions. It is peace with God, peace within ourselves, peace with others, and peace with creation.
As I grow in this experience of God’s peace, I live it out in my relationships with others. Not only that, as my life reflects the nature of God, people around me are saved and experience this piece themselves.
Every Christian becomes a catalyst for peace. Rather than demanding that others live at peace, we show what peace really looks like.
The Bible tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. This is His nature and His desire. When we live in the habit of reconciliation or peace, then we are living as God’s children.
Prayer
Your peace, Lord, flows through me like a river. May I share this grace with those around me. Amen.
Blessed
Quote for the Day
Our orienting loves are like a kind of gravity—carrying us in the direction to which they are weighted. If our loves are absorbed with material things, then our love is a weight that drags us downward to inferior things. But when our loves are animated by the renewing fire of the Spirit, then our weight tends upward. James Smith
Happy? In trouble?
The Throne of Grace
Quote for the Day
The place we unconsciously strive toward is what ancient philosophers of habit called our telos—our goal, our end. But the telos we live toward is not something that we primarily know or believe or think about; rather, our telos is what we want, what we long for, what we crave. James Smith
Blessed!
Reflection on Matthew 5:8
Scripture
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
Application
God loves people who are pure in heart and He promises that they will see Him.
The word pure (in Greek, katharos) means clean, not dirty or stained. To be pure in heart means to be forgiven or righteous To be pure in heart does not mean that we never sin or that we never think about bad things or that our thoughts are always focused on the Lord. You can be pure in heart even though you struggle with sin and temptation, You just need to confess it to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you.
The person who is pure in heart knows how to walk in God’s ways even when they are sometimes sidetracked by sin, The compass in their heart always points them back to the Lord.
The promise for these people is that they will see God. If your heart’s desire is to see God, you will want nothing other than that.
My desire is that, each day I grow closer in my relationship with the Lord. And that in this way, I will see Him more clearly. And when I get to heaven, I will see Him in all His glory with unveiled eyes.
Prayer
Lord, please make me pure in heart so that I can see you. Amen.
Wait patiently for the Lord.
New Life Narrabri 