{"id":19188,"date":"2014-04-20T00:15:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T04:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19188"},"modified":"2014-04-19T23:55:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T03:55:39","slug":"active-passive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/20\/active-passive\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Not Passive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Blessed (enjoying enviable happiness, spiritually prosperous\u2014 <\/span><\/strong>
\nwith life-joy and satisfaction in God\u2019s favor and salvation, <\/span><\/strong>
\nregardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and maintainers of peace, <\/span><\/strong>
\nfor they shall be called the sons of God! <\/span><\/strong>
\nMatthew 5:9 AMP<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Peace is so much more than a passive state. \u00a0It is not just the absence of fighting or the maintaining of the status quo. \u00a0Peace requires viewing the situation in light of the Gospel and actively setting out to promote and make peace.<\/p>\n

According to Hebrews 12:14 we are to:
\nWork at living in peace with everyone,
\nand work at living a holy life,
\nfor those who are not holy will not see the Lord.<\/p>\n

In Classical Greek, a peacemaker<\/span> <\/strong>was one who strove to bring about peace: an ambassador that pursued peace, putting faith to work doing good for all. \u00a0That is what we are called to be. \u00a0However, there is one stipulation:<\/p>\n

“Before one can be a peacemaker, one must be entirely delivered from self, from self-interest, and self-concern. \u00a0The peacemaker does not look at things in terms of how they may affect self.”<\/p>\n

– Chuck Smith<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A peacemaker<\/span><\/em> seeks the glory of God above all else, placing the well-being of others above his own. \u00a0It is the “less of me, more of Him” mentality in action.<\/p>\n

God took the initiative to make peace with us by sending His Son to die in our place. \u00a0Jesus is the One True Peacemaker. \u00a0Shouldn’t our mission be to share the Gospel of peace with others? \u00a0The inward peace only God can give? \u00a0When we choose to actively pursue peace, God rewards us with the very same peace.<\/p>\n

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind
\n[both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You,
\nbecause he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.
\nIsaiah 26:3<\/p>\n

And we will be known as His children.<\/p>\n

The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit,
\n[assuring us] that we are children of God.
\nRomans 8:16<\/p>\n

Peace is the evidence that we are His. \u00a0We reflect our Father’s characteristics in acknowledgment of our adoption into His family. \u00a0The family resemblance can be seen in us.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n

Father God, thank You for the many blessing You bestow upon us. \u00a0We are honored to be called a child of God. \u00a0Help us deny our own interests to promote Your peace so that others may benefit. \u00a0Guide our steps as we yearn to become more like You. \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name we pray. \u00a0Amen, so be it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed (enjoying enviable happiness, spiritually prosperous\u2014 with life-joy and satisfaction in God\u2019s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God! Matthew 5:9 AMP Peace is so much more than a passive state. \u00a0It is not just the absence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[6138,6137,6134,5889,3367,1287,425,2246,534,1714,6136,6135,3174],"class_list":["post-19188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-active-not-passive","tag-children-of-god","tag-chuck-smith","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hebrews-1214","tag-isaiah-263","tag-matthew-59","tag-peace-of-god","tag-peacemakers","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4Zu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19190,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19188\/revisions\/19190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}