Rise Up in Peace
Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” –Luke 7:50
The history of the pharisee and the sinful woman, which is found in Luke 7:36–50, is one that presents forgiveness, salvation, and faith. The Bible tells us that Jesus was invited to eat at the house of a pharisee named Simon. In that city, there lived a woman of dubious reputation who was noted for her bad life. That woman knew who Jesus was and what He could do. She went to the pharisee’s house and entered the activity. She went to where Jesus was, and given the magnitude of His presence, she prostrated herself before Him and quickly began to cry. Tears flowed profusely down her cheeks. And so, she knelt before Jesus, wet His feet with her tears, and kissed them. With her long hair, the woman dried the Lord’s feet. The woman had an alabaster jar full of perfume, which she also poured on Jesus’ feet. Faced with such a scene, Simon judged the woman’s life externally while Jesus valued the sincere and deep repentance that existed in her heart, through her act. Jesus told Simon another small parable—He taught that he who is forgiven for a greater debt will love that act of forgiving more. Jesus, in regard to the humility of the woman’s heart, told the woman: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
The experience of forgiveness and salvation lived out by this woman is what each of us has gone through. Her faith saved her. She believed in God’s grace and accepted it. I still remember when I accepted the Lord at age 13 and when I was reconciled with Him at 33, both of which were some of the most beautiful experiences of my life. At each of those experiences at different stages of life, I felt in my heart the assurance that I was being forgiven and accepted. That faith provoked joy to recognize that I was genuinely liberated by our Savior. Experiencing God’s forgiveness causes our lives to be transformed, and we are healed, freed, renewed, and restored for the glory of His name. Forgiveness has a restorative effect that renews all areas of our lives. And it is there, at the feet of Jesus Christ, that we find salvation, forgiveness, hope, and peace.
My beloved sisters, do you have any situations that take away your peace? Our Father gives us the opportunity every day to come before His presence and talk about our matters with Him. His love is so great that He invites us, through prayer, to go before the throne of grace to present everything that takes away our peace. Let us prostrate ourselves with faith in His presence and leave everything there that takes away our quietness and joy. At His feet is where we will receive consolation, acceptance, forgiveness, hope, and peace. And again, our beloved Jesus will say, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Prepare for Peace
As followers of Christ, we live in a broken, fast-changing world, one where Christians are a shrinking minority. This world is hostile; it challenges and rejects our value and belief system and attacks the Christian community.
I live as a minority Christian in my community—the impoverished, inner city of Toledo. I have been shocked, repulsed, angry, and indignant at times, even hopeless. I have not always been gracious or gentle when confronted by other beliefs. I am also a minority in mainstream America. My son has recently experienced “world” shock, returning to in-person schooling this year at a private boy’s school. He said to me, “I am shocked at the lack of supervision in the halls, mom. I have never heard so much bad language. These kids are weird, mom. They talk about weird stuff.”
I found out later the weird stuff they talk about. Yes, the world is different than we are; yet we must get along in it. I must teach him how to be a foreigner in his homeland. What then should we do as Christians? How can we rise up?
Your first thoughts may be voting, changing laws, telling the world what we think as Christians by marching. I would propose something radical—what if we prepared for peace instead of preparing for war?
The story of Abigail shows us a lesson in preparing for peace with dignity and grace. As the story goes, our hero, Abigail, is married to a foolish and harsh man named Nabal. Nabal has rashly offended the new king, David, who is now planning retribution in which Abigail and the entire household will be in peril.
“Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and loaded them on donkeys.Then she told her servants, ‘Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.’ But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.” –Samuel 25:18–20
Abigail took her enemy dinner and rode in on her donkey as a savior for her household to an incoming army. She did not prepare for war, but she did prepare for peace. Abigail exhibited dignity and grace with ultimate trust in her God. She lived in a home lorded by a harsh and foolish master, a sojourner in her own home. With dignity and grace, she strove for peacemaking and keeping while faithful to God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” –Matthew 5:9
We can rise up with dignity and grace as peacemakers. Let us as Christians be a minority group that shows dignity and grace when facing the armies of the world. Who will bring bread to the workplace, the family, and the schools? Let us eat with those coming against us, with the unwavering trust that Abigail had.
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” –Philippians 2:14–16
Blessed
While reading through the book of Matthew, the Holy Spirit has graciously led me to glimpse the heart of Jesus, especially through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.
In the first few verses, we see Jesus’ comforting words of blessing concerning the poor in spirit, the meek, and those who mourn. For the poor in spirit—those lacking in courage or vigor—He says the Kingdom of Heaven will be theirs. The meek—those who are gentle and humble—will inherit the earth. And those who mourn will be comforted.
Christ’s message to them is a message of hope. Each of them will receive the longing of their hearts. This seems almost contradictory. We usually think that only those who are outwardly courageous and fight will receive the reward. But Jesus sees the hearts of the poor, meek, and mournful. He knows the strength it takes them to keep their eyes on Him, and He desires to give them their reward.
Next, we see Jesus’ words of encouragement to those who are deeply desiring to follow hard after God. They have the strong desire to pursue the Spirit-filled, Spirit-controlled life. For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled! Satisfied! Those who are merciful—who show compassion towards an offender or enemy—will likewise receive mercy and compassion when they offend.
Our first thought when offended might be to seek revenge, to hurt the person as they have hurt us. But Jesus’ words encourage us to show mercy, which often times requires a change of heart. We aren’t to worry that someone might take advantage of us. Jesus says if we show mercy, we will be shown mercy when we need it.
Those who are pure in heart—innocent, untainted by evil, who see the best in others—will see God! And the peacemakers—those who bring harmony—will be called the sons of God. Jesus calls all of them blessed and all will receive their reward from God!
When we dwell in Christ, we don’t fight with the weapons of the world. We listen to the voice of God; we allow Him to transform our hearts to be like His. Even if all seems wrong on the outside, on the inside we can live in the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding. Isn’t that the very definition of blessed?
Speak Kindly and with Love! Speak Peace and Joy!
“We are women who can make a Kingdom impact!” We have a heart that loves our community, our neighbors, the ones in need. We have an intimate relationship with our God, the perfect example of Love. However, the reality is that we still live in a fallen world. We are broken people. No matter how much we want to be full of peace and love we can fall into sinful habits. We echo the sentiments of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:19 where he wrote, “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”
We live in a world of many voices, some of which are obviously against God’s Word. Others are quiet and subtle, yet attractive and convincing; we must be careful with those voices for we can fall into sin and justify our actions.
There will be times of conflict with others – for different reasons. Relational conflict is not something that should surprise us as Christians…we should expect it. We are complicated creatures and conflicts will come. They are unavoidable. The key question is, how do we handle them? Are we responding in a way that honors God or are we using old habits to go through the conflict? How does God want us to resolve conflicts in our personal relationships? When we seek to follow His commands and trust His wisdom, we honor God through even the most difficult times of conflict. When we strive to reflect God’s love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy to those with whom we are in conflict, we provide a beautiful witness to God’s character, and, glorify Him. Peace is possible if we look to Him. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God“, Mathew 5:9
Being compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient during conflict can be tough. When you know it is not in you to forgive, then you must find it in Christ. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me“, Philippians 4:12-13. Does forgiving negate the pain you have suffered? Does it reverse the things that have happened to you? No, but you will be free from the thoughts of hatred and bitterness. Joy is reflected in your life. Forgiveness is not only done for the sake of the one you are forgiving, but for your own sake so that you don’t have to live with the burden.
We, as women in Christ, having the Holy Spirit living within us, can love as Christ does. By obeying the Spirit, inspired by God’s word, we can show Christ’s unconditional, sacrificial, forgiving love to others. Even those who wronged us are the recipients of Christ’s love.
This is what we know to be true: “we are women who can make a kingdom impact. We can be kind and loving. We can speak peace and joy.“ We have the Holy Spirit in us, and He works through us. We cannot do anything of lasting significance by our own strength. We cannot bring about peace in our relationships on our own. We depend completely on Him, our Savior. Others will see the power of God in us and experience His peace and His love which have been given freely to us.