Isaiah 9:6, Romans 12:18, Hebrews 12:14

Our words are so important. Once we start to pursue peace we will need to watch our tongue. Defensiveness will cause us to have to justify ourselves, or to argue for our own way or want to out-shout another. These are wise words from proverbs, and if we can speak words that bring peace we'll be on our way to breaking the cycle.

Of course taming the tongue is a challenge in itself, (but that's a whole different study!) we can start by remembering that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". To be ambassadors of the Prince of Peace both pursuing peace and speaking peace we need to have peace within ourselves.

Peace rules

'And let the peace which comes from Christ rule continually in your hearts.' Colossians 3:15

The peace we show the world has to come from somewhere, we can't just fish it out of ourselves. It comes from having peace with God - given to us by Jesus Christ who gives us the peace of God and forgiveness and paves the way so that we can boldly come before Him to worship him. He is our peace (Ephesians 2:14) Jesus says to us, "Peace I leave with you. Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:27)

The peace of Christ can and must rule in our hearts - we can be secure in His peace, it passes our understanding, and if this peace is underlying our thoughts and decisions we will not easily be drawn into arguments, and we will not so often speak out of turn.

With His peace we can break the cycle, we can be ambassadors of His peace.

My prayer is that each of us let His peace rule, speaks peace, and makes peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the Sons of God!