Being The Peacemaker - Elaine Gan
There is a great difference between keeping peace and making peace. Keeping the peace is what we do when we sweep things under the carpet. When we measure this against the truth of God’s Word, we realise that keeping the peace is not actually biblical. Let us look at what Matthew 5:9 says.
How blessed you are when you make peace! For then you will be recognised as a true child of God. (TPT)
This revelation about learning how to be a peacemaker came in the form of my relationship with my father-in-law. Last year we had a family trip to China. My father-in-law was meant to go to the hospital for a check-up appointment while the rest of us were to go shopping. We had been looking forward to this time because we knew that we would be able to go for as long as we liked. In a sudden turn of events, my father-in-law decided to come along...
All excited we were in the shopping mall having a good time but after 10 minutes or so my father-in-law wanted to head back home. I was a bit annoyed and now I was rushing at maximum capacity to buy everything I wanted to get that day. By the time I reached the car, I recognised his face and the anger written across it as a result of waiting for me. As we were in the car, I was brooding and eager to teach him a lesson; going through all the things I wanted to say to him, in my head.
I was crafting a beautiful story in my own head, when suddenly I felt the Holy Spirit convict me. I knew I needed to apologise to solve my conflict with him, rather than blame him. With hesitation, I apologised. The moment I did, he broke down. To my surprise, this 83-year-old man started crying and apologised to me about how he had approached the situation. At the end of a sweet moment of peace and forgiveness, because of what happened, he decided to accept Christ at 83 years old! Something happened in his heart that day. How amazing!
Through this, I learned a very important lesson about being the peacemaker. I could have easily kept quiet and allowed my thoughts to run wild. God always wants us to see people the way Jesus sees them - with a capacity of limitless grace and love, despite their upbringing and perspectives that affect their actions. I learned that a peacemaker is one who speak the truth, in love. When my children misbehave, I tell them that I love them, but I do not love their behaviour and I let them know that I do need to discipline them for it.
Blessings are attached to those who make peace! The key to making peace is to encourage unity, because where there is dis-unity the enemy can easily come in to steal, kill and destroy.
Our hurtful words can easily cut people away from our lives. Instead, what we can do to have healthy relationships is to be intentional about being encouraging, forgiving and find things to love about the people around us.
In Ephesians 4:15-16 (NLT), it says, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love”.
This way, we see beyond needing to keep the peace, and discover the importance of making peace, inspiring unity within our relationships, so that our every response is one full of love.
Written by Elaine Gan
Elaine is married to Andy Gan and is the mother of Kimberly and Gerard , she is on the Kingdomcity team.