14 day plan

Family Peacemaking

Day 7 of 14

CSB

Colossians 3:15

15And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

Reflection:  For further reading see Matthew 7:3-5

Peace-faking is different to peace-making.  Peace fakers are people predisposed to having peace at any cost. They prefer peace over truth and see peace as the absence of any kind of conflict. They’ll go to great lengths to avoid confrontation and in doing so, they’ll settle for a counterfeit peace based on avoiding reality.

Although many offenses can and should be overlooked, some things are so harmful that they should be confronted.

There are times when we should rightly speak to another person about their contribution to a conflict – not because we are wholly right and they are wholly wrong – but because of a genuine desire for restoration and reconciliation… after we’ve taken the log out of our own eye. It’s amazing how much clarity we have about everyone else’s sins and offences but struggle to acknowledge and confess our own.

Question: Do you have a ‘log’ in your own eye?  Can you (and are you prepared to) articulate what this is?

Prayer:  Lord, give me courage to truthfully identify those areas of my life that I am currently blind to.  And only after examining myself, I pray that you would give me wisdom and clarity about those things that you call me to confront in others.

© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers

Days

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Colossians 3:1-25

The Life of the New Man

1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

The Christian Life

12Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Christ in Your Home

18Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them. 20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they won’t become discouraged. 22Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. 23Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. 25For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.

© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers