Episode 19: Ephesians 2:14-18
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.
Today's verse is Ephesians 2:14-18.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in His flesh, the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace. And in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through Him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Let's pray together.
God, I find it amazing that You had this plan from creation. It started out so very wide with the whole earth, even if there were only two people on it. But You kept narrowing it down to Abraham, to his family, to his descendants. And then in a way that I wouldn't have expected, You burst it wide open again. Through Jesus came salvation for all, no matter who you were. So the two groups, Jews and Gentiles, those who had a covenant with You, and those who are now saved through Jesus, they become one group because we are all saved through Jesus.
I'm so appreciative of the fact that there was not one step along the way that confused You, that worried You. You always had everything completely under control and patiently and expertly made Your way down through the generations to the cross, to the execution of Your plan. And now on the other side, it's no different. Your plan is still in place, still being carried out, spread to the whole world. And we are the people who are to carry that out. Help us to be obedient to that, LORD, to the knowledge that Your plan for us is to preach Your gospel, to live Your gospel. In obedience in our lives, we demonstrate who You are and show the love and the plan that You have in place. That demonstration promotes peace. Because we are to be one humanity. We are one body that is reconciled to You, and there shouldn't be hostility between us.
You have a special people that You created as part of Your covenant, and they are still special and You still care for them and You still carry out the promises of that covenant. But You graciously extended salvation to all of us as well. And now we can care for each other.
We don't have to separate. We don't have to worry about the division between law and salvation. We all have access to You, God, through Your Holy Spirit. And I love this image of You preaching peace to those far away and those who are near. Like the sound of Your voice can reach to the ends of the universe. Everyone gets to hear it and everyone gets to come.
I pray that we would be fully in support of this plan of Yours, LORD. Promoting peace, sending out love to everyone because we are all invited to be Your children. Whatever walls of hostility we think that there need to be, they don't actually need to be. Jesus, start with a hostility in our own hearts, bred there through influence, through circumstances, through our own original sin, whatever the cause. LORD, I pray that You would eradicate it through the peace and love that Your Son brings us. So that when we meet anyone, we are prepared to love them as You love them, no matter how hard that would be.
And, Jesus, in doing so, I think we promote wholeness and peace within ourselves. Because we're not happy when we're hostile. We're not happy when we're angry. We're not happy when we're at division and at odds with each other. It's not fun. It breeds discontent, resentment, general unhappiness. LORD, I don't want that, and I don't want that for anyone who's hearing me.
So help us to surrender our right to ourselves, and instead give up control of the plan of our lives to You, because we've seen that Your plan works better than anybody else's. I want to walk each step that You have for me. I want to connect and love the people that You bring along the way with me. And at the end of the journey, I want all of them there with me worshiping You. I pray that we would just live with this mindset. God, help me. Help me in my heart to desire this through every moment.
In Your name, I pray.
Amen.
That is it from me today, my friends. Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope that you have a wonderful, peaceful rest of your day. If you'd like to connect with me, you can find me on Instagram at thejulihernandez. I'd love to see you over there.
Otherwise, I will see you guys on Monday.
