Getting Along

Matthew 5:9

Now that is ONE TALL ORDER!  This was the subject for yesterday mornings worship service. He shared some advise from a 1st grade teacher that seemed very easy to follow, “Build a bridge and Get over it.”.   I think we might should all just do that!

You’d like to think that the people in a church building would be the 1st to “get along” but we all seem to forget……….. we’re all still simply human.  But this is the 1st place that we should all begin working on ourselves, growing, maturing, acknowledging our own poor behaviors instead of pointing out those of everyone else.   Pointing out the sins of others and not seeing those sins that are lingering in ourselves will not ever solve the issues. As it says in Ephesians 4:13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  

We must become mature in the Lord.  Understanding that we have to clear out the plank in our eye before we can see clearly  see the speak of saw dust in the others eye. (Matthew  7:35)   Once you have looked at your part of the situation CLEARLY and established what your part is (if you have one), what you can change (if anything), is it the current situation that is truly the issue (or something in the past) and have yanked that plank out of your eye can you then and only then go to the other person and talk to them about their part. (Matthew 18:15-17) If you have totally cleared the plank from your eye then this action of talking to the other person will be from a place of love and must always be done face to face.  If the other person is not willing to see their part in the situation then it may come to doing as Elsa says in the movie Frozen, you may just have to “Let it Go”. 

Now here is the tricky one………… what if, just what if you are, I am, the one that is truly the one at fault.  Are we to wait until the innocent party comes to us? No! As it says in Matthew 5:23-24 “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”  You are, I am, to be willing to be the initiator and ask to be reconciled with the other person.  It probably is even going to require, “I’m sorry!”.

So, Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

So let me say that I have had ample opportunities to be the peace maker and in those opportunities, I have had ample opportunities to look at and remove the plank from my own eye before I could see the speak in the eye of the other.  In those opportunities, I have had reconciliation and I have had to “let it go”.  But in all those opportunities, I have felt the presence of God working in me, maturing me, helping me acknowledge my own poor behavior so that He could do as He promises in Matthew 5:9………….

Matthew 5:9