Episode Four: Colossians 3:15
Dear friends, welcome to Peace Prayers. My name is Juli, and I would love to be able to spend some time with you today. What I'd like to do is read a Scripture from the Bible about peace, and then pray it together over our lives. That way we can have a few minutes to start our day with God's peace. I'm so excited to get started with you. Thank you for joining me today.
Our verse for today is Colossians 3:15.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace, and be thankful.
So, Christians are called to peace, to unity, and with that comes gratitude, but it means surrender to Christ.
Let's pray together.
Oh, Jesus. I am thankful that You are in charge. Honestly, it would be too much for me to try to rule my own heart. I'm very ill equipped to do it. I'm so full of my own desires, my own petty wants and needs, but You have called us to a higher purpose, and that is to surrender.
It's very interesting to think of that as being a higher purpose, but it is. There's nothing more glorious, nothing more that we can do with our lives than to just say, Jesus, You rule. You reign. I don't wanna be in charge.
But it also says, God, that it's the peace of Christ that rules in our hearts. So this isn't the kind of surrender where we have a cruel task master telling us what to do, but this is us becoming whole. This is us becoming unified. This is us at peace, and that is so amazing. So I pray, LORD that we would surrender to that today. We wouldn't worry about what it means for our lives, how it will change us. Instead, Father, let us be at peace because You are in our hearts and You are above all.
And, LORD, You ask us to do this because You called us to this. You said that we are all members of one body. Jesus, we don't always act like we are. There's so much division. There's so much hatred even among the people who call you LORD and a whole it should not be so. Jesus, forgive us for this. Forgive us for not being one with each other. It's true. We're all different, and that's amazing. You gave us different gifts. You gave us different callings, but You still asked us to be one body. You asked us to be at peace with each other. You asked us to be unified. And LORD, we haven't done it. Not very well.
So let us identify whatever is in our heart that is ruling it, that keeps us from peace with each other. Really help us to examine ourselves and to know that actual true sin that might be holding us back from this. I know I am guilty of it, God, and it can be so fearful to admit to it, to admit it to each other. But, God, I pray if there's anything in our hearts that's keeping us from our fellow body of believers that we will confess it. We will lay it at your altar. We will make amends with each other, and we will move forward in peace. Let that be our charge today no matter how difficult it may be. Search us, God, and reveal to us what we may be too stubborn or too fearful to understand.
And finally, LORD, make us grateful. Help us to understand that with peace comes gratitude. We may think we don't have everything we need, but, really, You are everything we need, and You will provide for us. It's not always easy to believe that, but I think You do show it to us every day, so show it. Help us see with true eyes because so often we keep them stubbornly closed. But, LORD, let these two things, gratitude and peace, walk handfast through our lives, keeping us steady, keeping us unified, keeping us gloriously whole.
Oh, LORD. I want that, and I want that for the people who are hearing my voice. What a fabulous change that would be for us. What a wonderful way to our live our lives, to live in wholeness and peace and with gratitude, knowing that You are going to take charge, and You're going to rule in our hearts and help us in every single way possible. So, Jesus, we're gonna surrender to that today.
Let us feel the effects of it right away, LORD. Just even in this moment, Father, help us to feel Your Spirit coming in, revealing, guiding.
In Your name. I pray. Amen.
That is it for me today. My friends, I wish you everlasting, perfect peace for the rest of your day, and we will see you again on Friday. Thanks for joining.
