Sow Peace, Reap Righteousness

Last night, I was reading James 3. As I came to verses 17 & 18, I started to think about peace. Here's what the verses say, "The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."

Think about this, if we sow in peace, we will reap righteousness. Doesn't it seem like our world has it all wrong? When there is unrighteousness, we start wars. Now, we always cover up the messiness of wars by saying that the end result will be peace. So, let me ask, after all the wars (large and small) our country has been through, have we really brought peace into the world? Have our actions as the military power of the world brought about peace and righteousness?

In watching Hotel Rwanda, I found myself disgusted at how little the US and UN did for these people that were suffering through genocide. Now, we see the persecution and genocide going on in the Sudan and what are we doing? We say we'll send money and forces...But, it's all lip service. I read an article recently about Perry Farrell, lead singer of Jane's Addiction. In the article it talked about how he had paid the ransom for something like 2,300 woman and children to be freed from captivity in the Sudan. Perry is not a Christian, but heard about the suffering and was overcome with a need and desire to help. Hearing about this made me start to question what I'm doing to help bring about peace and righteousness in our world.

If we are truly wise, we will be seeking to bring about peace in our world. We will be pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. There is so much that I could be doing that I'm not. I focus way too much on my own situation. I focus way to much on my wants. I fail to realize that even when I think I'm at my wits end I've got it much better off than the majority of people in the world.

What can we do to sow peace and harvest righteousness in our world today? The possibilities are endless. One thing you can do to help those that are suffering through hunger and poverty is sign the petition at one.org I won't explain it all away to you here. But, I do encourage you to visit the site and check it out.