So Far As It Depends Upon You, Be At Peace

My Utmost For His Highest

…strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. —Acts 24:16

“God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.[…] If I am in the habit of continually holding God’s standard in front of me, my conscience will always direct me to God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do. The question is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I can live without any offense toward anyone. I should be living in such perfect harmony with God’s Son that the spirit of my mind is being renewed through every circumstance of life, and that I may be able to quickly “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2 ; also see Ephesians 4:23).” CHAMBERS

Imagine that God tells you to walk in a dark room.  You go in and are bumping into the furniture. So God says turn on the light and you say “no .. I can do this without help.”  That is what it is like when we try to live the Christian life on our own.  But once we obey .. when we say yes to God … we turn on the light … and we can do what God said to do. God says do this and has already provided the means to do it.  But the means is out of reach until we obey.

So what if you do what God says but another person involved does not respond in kind?  Has that ever happened to you?  I was just sharing with a person the other day Romans 12:17-18 “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace ..”  We were talking about someone who had passed away.  This person was particularly difficult.  We had tried to be reconciled with him, we had extended our hand in peace.  He had refused to take it.  The lesson was that we are responsible to God to obey what He says .. we are not responsible for the other person’s response.  As much as you would like to see restoration … the other person must turn the light on by themselves.  So as far as it depends upon you … in other words . .you do what you are supposed to do.  You don’t have to be a doormat.  Jesus told the disciples to shake the dust off of their sandals if people rejected them.  In other words, they could not make the people respond .. the people had to do it on their own .. and if they did not, the disciples were to move on.

 

I told my friend that when we reach out our hand in true (not feigned) reconciliation and peace and someone refuses to take it … it is the same as when God reached His hand out to the world, and many have refused to take it.  The sadness you feel in your heart is like the sadness the Father has when His creation rejects life and peace.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)