Day 12: Prayer Focus: Peace and Unity | Romans 14:19
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19)
This is the most divisive and destructive national relationships have been in a long time in America. We cannot seem to find any common ground, nor do most people want to find it. Some people enjoy watching the world burn. Other people can’t see what some people see so clearly about the decline of America.
We’ve become so familiar with division that we wouldn’t be able to find peace once again. But we need unity. It’s not just in politics. Our division has come between us, infected every part of our society. We can’t find unity in anything. Not in politics, society, religion, or common conversation. We have no recourse.
Jesus calls us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). We’d rather be right than be blessed. So, how do we find peace and unity in our nation again? It starts with prayer. It starts with giving up our egos, sacrificing them on the altar of unity and peace. It begins with each of us. We must willingly give up our biases and put the other person ahead of our own desires and thoughts.
That kind of unconditional love goes a long way. Most of our perceived adversaries wouldn’t know what to do with that kind of compassion and love. Paul said we can show such love and heap burning coals upon their heads (Romans 12:20). They won’t understand why you show them such love. It will unnerve them.
Let us be the first to make peace, to reach across our differences and pave the way for peace. We make the environment for friendship and unity. We could really use peace and unity in our nation. God built it on unity. We still call them the United States. What are you willing to give up to make peace? Can you find something to unify with others on?
Paul originally wrote these words in Romans to Christians. He was not talking about national relationships. He was talking about Christian unity, which we cannot find these days either. We have built churches and denominations out of minor doctrinal disagreements. Realize that there are reasons to not agree. But we don’t have to talk about the things we disagree on.
We don’t want to take peace and unity over truly divisive beliefs and issues that are at odds with the Bible and Jesus’s teachings. But many of our disagreements do not involve the major doctrines and ideas for which we separate. Look for ways to love people you disagree with. And pray our nation can become one again.
Prayer Points
- For unity and peace to flow in our streets
- Unconditional love to bind us to one another
- More peacemakers than warriors
- Letting peace and unity in the hills we are willing to die on