James 3: 17-18  ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Every Tuesday at lunch, I have the opportunity to lead a Bible study for the ladies in our AR CARES program. While I obviously love getting to work with all of our clients, this has come to be one of my favorite times of the week, just because most of these women are so honest in their questions and their comments.

Some of them have great Biblical insight, while some aren’t exactly sure how to look-up a verse. However, they all contribute to the conversation, and every week I leave feeling like we’ve had an enjoyable time talking with God and one another.

For the past several weeks, we’ve been going through the book of James. We take several verses each week, and kind of break them down and talk through them. Our verses yesterday were from chapter 3, and included the verses above, focused on our becoming peacemakers.

There were a couple of the women who really struggled through the idea of being submissive (and I admitted that was sometimes a hard word for me to swallow, as well.) As we talked through what that really means Biblically, we landed on the idea that submission, and peacemaking in general, has to do with once again yielding to Christ, and being willing to set aside your own wants in order to let the wants of someone else be more important. We talked a lot about choosing your battles, and the wisdom that is in knowing when a fight is important, and when is an appropriate time to let someone else win.

As we look at our world today, and the chaos that seems to constantly surround us, all the way from the global down to the things happening in our individual households and families, I think it is more imperative now than ever that we be people of God’s peace. Being people of peace doesn’t mean that we never fight for justice, but rather that we save our fights, so that we will be ready to fight when it is really needed. Just as the boy who cried wolf learned that he needed to save his voice for when it was really needed, we too need to make sure that we have our voices saved up for the important fights.

According to Scripture, we can run our thoughts through the following lens: Is this thought I have “Pure? Peace-loving? Considerate?  Submissive?  Full of mercy and good fruit? Impartial? Sincere?” If you can answer yes to all of these, then this is wisdom from Heaven, and you should move ahead with your plan. If not, then maybe take a second to think about it again before you pick the fight.

We all want peace, yet we are rarely the ones who want to give in. I am the exact same way. Yet, there is an undeniable incongruence here—if none of us choose to be the ones who give in, and no one ever gives in, then peace seems like a difficult goal to achieve.

Be the one in your family that works for peace. Be the one in your workplace, in your congregation, in your community, in your world that works for peace. Be the one who is willing to fight when it is necessary, to give in when it is not, and who encourages others to have those pure, merciful, impartial, considerate thoughts.

When you have a day when all you need is a little peace, pray to God and ask Him for it, and then be the agent that He uses to bring His peaceful kingdom to Earth!