Devotional: Are You Game to Declare and Display Reconciliation?
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NIV
We live in a world of hostility, retaliation, suspicion, and segregation. Police brutality, political bullying, name calling, sarcasm, and slander on our social media and news feeds are constant reminders of the strains and cracks that surround us daily. People are angry, fed up, combative, and some have sadly resigned to this being the norm.
But in the midst of this, God invites the church, His people, YOU, to make known the possible and powerful way towards peace and reconciliation.
Stop and consider that for a moment. As one who has come to trust and hope in the loving life, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus, you are entrusted with the mission of telling people how to find true peace with each other. God is making His appeal for peace, His appeal for reconciliation, His appeal of kindness and forgiveness through you and through me. But, this large and daunting task takes two things…
First, knowing that the foundation of reconciliation lies in being reconciled with God. Our only hope of true peace comes through trusting that I can’t do anything to earn it. It’s admitting that my anger, my bitterness, my malice was put on Jesus, and in return He gave me love—full and unfailing love. Instead of punishing me, He forgave me. Believing this melts and renews my heart and motivates me to extend to others, even in small ways, what’s been extended to me in perfection through Jesus.
Second, we need the local church to be where we practice reconciliation, so we can then extend that hope, offer, and promise of reconciliation to our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, and our city. We pursue reconciliation and peace with our spouses, kids, and fellow congregants so we can learn to extend it to our roommates, coworkers, and neighbors. From there, we can be a community and a people that offer the way toward reconciliation in the midst of the ethnic, religious, and social tensions that seek to separate people in our city.
God has placed us in our home, on our street, in our workplace, and in this city to be ambassadors declaring and displaying that reconciliation is possible. Are you game?
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