Living At Peace With Others

CALL TO PRAYER

By: Stephen Osei Kuffour

Date: 10.12.2023

Title: Living At Peace With Others

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

 (Colossians 3:13-14 NIV)

Growing up, there was this one family in our community who everyone envied at some point. The “envy” here is not meant to be bad but most of the kids in our community wished they were in this family due to how they loved and treated one another. This healthy relationship at home caused the parents to be successful at their Jobs and the children were also doing well at school. At one point, due to a reason unknown to anyone, there was a strife in the family and the parents had to split. This affected the family so much that some of their children became school dropouts and started doing bad things.

The truth is that strife creates a toxic environment for any relationship, be it marital, work, church, family, etc. It is therefore very important for us to strive to live at peace with others. As Christians, the word of God encourages us to always try our best to live at peace with others if it depends on us (Rom 12:18). This is because, you may sometimes want to live at peace with someone but if the other person is not ready to do so, you cannot do anything about it but to pray for him/her. I would like to share some important keys which are very helpful in creating a peaceful environment in any relationship.

As Christians, let’s decide to always bear people. The original Greek word of the word “Bear” in Colossians 3:13 is “Anechomai” which means, “to endure something unpleasant or difficult.” Most people are full of many weaknesses and shortcomings and from my personal experience, this includes those who look spiritual on the outside. One may be spiritual but when you get closer, you may find that they also have one or two shortcomings. The truth is that we are all working towards perfection and most of us have not yet reached there (Matthew 5:48).

To have successful relationships, you must therefore be prepared to suffer and accommodate the weaknesses of others such as pride, wickedness, ingratitude, betrayal, unfaithfulness, etc. In a Church, there are those who are now on their way to spiritual maturity, and these may be full of many weaknesses because of their lack of understanding. It is therefore the responsibility of the more mature ones to bear their weaknesses and help them grow spiritually (Rom 15:1-2).

There are some people who become moody sometimes for no reason and after a short while, they become joyous. If you are in a relationship with such people, you should be able to bear with this change in attitude. The ability to bear with the weakness of others will really help you to maintain a long-term relationship.

Beloved in the Lord, the word of God encourages us to strive to always live at peace with all men. This is however not easy to achieve because people are full of many and different weaknesses. To live at peace with others, let’s therefore be prepared to suffer and accommodate the weaknesses of others.

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His Word today. Let’s ask the Lord to help all Believers to live at peace with others.

God bless you all