Peace
God lets you live in peace... ~ Psalm 147:14a (CEV)
So let’s try as hard as we can to do what will bring peace. Let’s do whatever will help each other grow stronger in faith. ~ Romans 14:19 (ERV)
Lord it appears that peace is a pretty important aspect of your agenda for the world. You establish it. You call us to work at it. Strong faith depends on it. And I blow it off. It's not that I'm against peace. But it just isn't the kind of priority for me that it is for you. I need a new set of priorities -- priorities that involve peacemaking. Help me to see what that looks like and what it involves. Please give me a fresh vision of the kind of peace that you have been planting in the world and in the lives of desperate people. Amen.
Challenging Words
- aspect -- portion, piece, or part of
- blow it off -- idiomatic express for failing to take something or someone seriously, ignoring or even intentionally doing the opposite of what they want
- priority -- something that is considered to be really important, more important than other things
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
