Establishing Peace

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
—Romans 5:1

 

Before the Big Four Conference in Geneva I watched President Eisenhower kneel in a chapel and ask God for divine guidance in the deliberations to follow. I felt sure that God would answer his earnest prayer. I believe that He did, for President Eisenhower during those days displayed the spirit of a true peacemaker on the international level. The only corrective measure in establishing peace is for men as individuals to know the peace of God. Though I am not wholly averse to movements which strive in one way or another for world peace, I have a strong conviction that such peace will never come unless there is a spiritual dynamic at the core. I pray for wars to cease, just as I pray for crime to stop; but I know that the basic cause of both crime and war is the inherent sinfulness of human nature. The world cannot be reborn until men are born again and are at peace with God.

Prayer for the day

Heavenly Father, I pray for the peace of the world through individuals surrendering to Your Son, Jesus Christ. Bless all today who are spreading the Gospel here and abroad.

Molding You

When we suffer and die for Christ it only means that we will begin living with him in heaven.
—2 Timothy 2:11 (TLB)

 

I have a friend who during the Depression lost his job, a fortune, a wife, and a home. But he tenaciously held to his faith—the only thing he had left. One day he stopped to watch some men doing stonework on a huge church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of stone. “What are you going to do with that?” asked my friend. The workman said, “See that little opening away up there near the spire? Well, I’m shaping this down here, so it will fit in up there.” Tears filled the eyes of my friend as he walked away, for it seemed that God had spoken through the workman to explain his ordeal through which he was passing, “I’m shaping you down here, so you’ll fit in up there.”

Prayer for the day

Thank You, Lord, for all the “shaping” in my life, which brings me closer to You.