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As we have seen in previous essays, God has given us the strength and ability through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to be his agents of peace in our broken world. We also need to be reminded that Jesus’ commands on the subject of living out the “gospel of peace” are clear: Go and do! The Bible has many practical instructions about what it means to live as a peacemaker and we will highlight some of these in the next few weeks. This week we will discuss how shalom does not just involve some actions, but is a way to live -- a life journey.The book of Proverbs contains the heart of Old Testament religious instruction and it is a good place to begin our look at practical peacemaking advice. For example, the third chapter of Proverbs – and I would encourage you to stop and read it now – begins with insights that link obedience to God’s commandments and living a full, healthy life with prosperity. This chapter highlights shalom in all of its many dimensions and emphasizes that it is a gift of God to his people.
The wise teacher, who, as you may remember, is King Solomon, encourages his readers to make love and faithfulness the core of their lives with the promise that doing so will bring favor from both God and other people. Verse 5 has been a favorite of mine for years and I frequently think about it when I pray: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (NIV) or “he shall direct your paths” (NKJV).
However, I confess that I don’t fully understand this passage. I often wonder what it means to “lean not on your own understanding” since I work hard to understand developments in Russia and have a Ph.D. in European and Russian history. But what I count on is God’s promise that he will “direct’ my paths (note it’s plural!).
When I face tough decisions, I do the best I can to follow what I think God wants me to do, even though sometimes this is not very clear. Then I pray that God will bless what I have done and I wait to see what happens. It’s a formula I learned years ago: Work like everything depends on you and but know that God is in charge and he will orchestrate the future. Work hard; pray hard. This gives me great freedom to move ahead, while continuing to seek God’s guidance in my life.
Later in this same chapter, these powerful words appear: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. . . . Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she [wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold . . . Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3: 7, 13-14, and 17, NIV).
The foundation for this profound biblical insight is clear: Trust in the Lord with all your heart. The sin of humanity was and is the desire to become like God – autonomous, independent, accountable to no one – isn’t that a good description of most Americans? But these verses teach the opposite: do not trust in your own understanding, but trust in God alone. Fearing God means not putting confidence in ourselves and our plans and goals, but relying solely on our Creator.
That’s walking our talk. Life is a journey and peacemaking should be a key part of our travel kit.
So What?
• Putting our trust in God is so counter-cultural, isn’t it? Everything around us stresses how we need to be in charge, how we need to call the shots. Kingdom living points in another direction – we are men and women made by a God who loves us and cares for us. Deciding to put our confidence in our Creator is life’s best investment.
• One of the biggest challenges for followers of Jesus is to put our faith into practice. We can so easily sing all the gospel songs, but we struggle with actually living out what we believe. How can we help each other to “walk our talk”?
