It’s SPIRIT WEEK 2013 here on GUWG, where we’re taking an up-close and personal look at each Fruit of the Spirit.
Today’s featured fruit: PEACE.
Peace with God? Sin damages our relationship with God. So, first we need peace with God. That’s exactly why Jesus – the Prince of Peace – came. His sacrifice on the cross wiped out sin’s penalty and gives us access to peace with God by grace through faith (Romans 5:1).
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:16)
Be like Jesus. Get alone with your Heavenly Father right now and pray.
Here’s today’s prayer suggestion — one the world certainly needs right now. Pray through it with all your heart, soul and mind.
We continue our 40-day journey with Jesus to the Cross and beyond with a deep dive into the Beatitudes.
The world says: Revenge is sweet. Fight back. Retaliate.
Jesus says:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
Galatians 5 describes in graphic detail what life looks like with and without the Spirit:
The devil loves troublemakers. God loves peacemakers.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)
Everything seemed to be going well for Horatio Spafford. He was a successful lawyer and businessman and had a young family of seven.
But then everything changed.
It’s CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN 2012 here on GUWG. Today’s topic:
PEACE
Here’s what the prophet Isaiah said about Jesus hundreds of years before he was born:
Unplug. Unwind. Un-whatever-it-is-you’re-doing.
Take a deeeeeeeeep breath and spend the next few moments with our Heavenly Father pondering what is perhaps the world’s most beloved psalm. Let each word seep deep into your soul, fill your mind and quiet your heart.
Here’s a little prayer as we continue to reflect on the events of a decade ago. Please pray through it with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The world needs it.
LORD,
Make me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy
Grant that I may not so much
Seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life
AMEN
(St. Francis of Assisi)
