Living peacefully with everyone

Hello and welcome to Spiritual once more. It’s a beautiful day to give thanks to God and learn his desires upon us again.

Today, I will break away from our previous teaching on living uprightly to discuss something about living peacefully with people.

God wants all human beings on earth to live peacefully with each other just as it’s written in the book of Romans.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18 (NIV)

What is ‘living at peace/peacefully with everyone’

It is simply doing all it takes to have a free, cordial and respectful relationship with everyone near and far from us regardless of their cultural, religious and political backgrounds.

Why does God want us to live peacefully with everyone

To avoid violence. Violence is the escalated phase of conflict. Its root cause is failure to acknowledge our differences and co-exist peacefully.

God hates violence and those who promote it (Proverbs 3:31, Psalms 11:5)

So is there anything we can do to live peacefully with others

To live at peace with others, we should first live at peace with ourselves. We should be at peace with our predilections, thoughts, desires, characters and deeds. We should constantly obey when our souls refuse certain things and concur with others. It is only until then that the journey to live in peace with others begin.

There are generally five important things we can do to live peacefully with one another.

1. Saying “thank you”

When people do us any favour or give us anything undeserved, we should learn to say thank you even before showing our appreciation in any other way. It’s a powerful way of indicating both approval and appreciation. Being ungrateful certainly puts and widens rifts between us and our friends and relatives.

2. Saying sorry

Sorry, just like thank-you, is a term that serves to lessens the pain of any injury. Not telling the offended person sorry when actually we realise we’ve wronged them can cause serious damages to our relationships, whether formal or informal. When we step onto someone’s toes, let’s not simply walk away as if we just stepped onto plain grass; rather, let’s stop a moment and tell them, “Sorry, dear.” It certainly heals.

3. Cangratulating people

When one merits at anything, isn’t it awesome to give them a thumbs-up or write them a congratulatory note? It certainly warms the cockles of one’s heart to learn that we truly value their success. If we don’t congratulate people, we’re turning their hearts away from us. Hearts are controlled by the mind, and the human mind is akin to praises.

4. Forgiving offenders

Vengeance is mine…, thus says the Lord (Deutronomy 32:35). When we forgive, we stop a hurricane from making a way out of our rage, just the same hurricane that made Cain uworthy before God for his entire life. It is a simple way of saying, pass me quickly with thine temptation, you Satan.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32 (NIV)

5. Consoling the troubled

At least everyone desires someone to feel close to at any time of grief, someone who can caress their back and say, “It will be okay.” Such caring people are hard to forget in one’s life. So whenever and however we can, let’s comfort people cuffed with troubles such as grief, loss of property, sickness, loneliness and poverty amongst other problems. If we don’t comfort others in their woes, it sends a strong message of our lacking of care and concern, and only contributes to hatred and animosity.

Thanks for taking your precious time to read. See you next Sunday with a continuation of our previous topic regarding uprightness. Stay blessed and continue reading our blogs.