Essential JesusНамуна

Peacemakers: Agents of Change

After you cut an apple, have you noticed it starts to turn brown? I’m going to get a little technical now, but that’s due to something called PPO, which is an enzyme causing oxidization when the apple is cut or bruised. It changes the look, taste, and smell of the apple. What was delicious and healthy is now becoming spoilt. Conflict is like that. It’s common in our world, from individual disagreements among friends, families, or workmates to whole nations at war with each other. Conflict can impact our relationships, changing them, causing damage, and spoiling them.

But when you put lemon juice on a cut apple, it prevents it from going brown, plus it tastes sweeter! That’s because the lemon juice is an agent for change that works to stop the oxidization. If conflict is impacting our relationships like a browned apple, how can we be like lemon juice, an agent of change, limiting the damage and working for good in our relationships?

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers" (NIV). Peacemakers aren’t passive–they work in the midst of war, where it’s hard. They’re active agents engaging in talks and mediation to help bring peace.

Why did Jesus describe peacemakers as children of God? Jesus Himself came into our war-torn world to bridge the gap between us and God, then died to enable us to have peace in our relationship with God. We are following in His footsteps when we’re agents of change in our world, bringing peace to the situations around us and speaking love where there is conflict especially to those who don’t yet know God’s real and lasting peace.

Written by JODIE WILLIAMS