Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

PEACEMAKING Erich Segal wrote, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." How wrong that is! Love means saying you are sorry over and over again, and love means forgiving over and over again. Jesus said the role of the Kingdom child is peacemaker. Life is filled with conflict. Most of what we know of history has some connection with war. The United States, in its somewhat short history, has been involved in many major conflicts. Indeed, most nations of the earth experience internal strife and border clashes. The Bible tells us explicitly what the origin of all conflict is: Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:1-3). Our conflicts come because we are selfish. God desires to cure us, His children, of our greed. And God says that as His children we are not to be part of the problem but part of the solution. It is a wise husband or wife who steps in and says, "I'm sorry." It may seem that one is always the first to say it, but Jesus noted that true peacemakers are willing to swallow pride to heal the wounds.