Your Father’s Child

Your Father’s Child

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

Matthew 5:9

Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.

Colossians 3:15

Christ himself has brought peace to us.

Ephesians 2:14

When people look at your family, can they see a resemblance in your physical features or mannerisms? Even adopted children often resemble their parents and siblings in many ways—hand gestures, facial expressions, speech patterns. When someone looks at you or listens to you, can they tell what family you come from?

Jesus said that there’s a way to live that makes you immediately recognizable as one of his children. It’s when you are a peacemaker. Because God, your Father, is a peacemaker too. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). “He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).

People will recognize us as God’s children when we are willing to make sacrifices for peace the way God did, when we do everything we can to reconcile or restore relationships between people and God and between some people and other people.

Do you always seem to be at the center of a conflict? Are you always angry with someone? Do you get easily offended? If so, you are not carrying the family resemblance. Or do people see your peace with God and with other people? When people know they can count on you to offer words of wisdom and peace rather than anger or criticism, it’s because they’ve seen that you are a peacemaker, just like your Father.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What do you think it means to be a peacemaker?

Who have you observed being a peacemaker?

How is sharing Christ with someone being a peacemaker?