“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14
I wanted to include this verse that is tucked away in Hebrews because while it is short it is definitely to the point and it actually says a lot. First of all, there is really no way you can have peace with God if you are not striving for peace with everyone. Now when I see this word striving, many times to me it makes me think of difficulty, hurry, trying to attain something unattainable. Quite frankly it makes me tired just to think about it. But this kind of striving is the way to obtain true peace from God.
You see, we can’t have peace with God if we are not attempting to live in peace with everyone. That does not mean we will always agree, nor does it mean we will always like what other people are saying or doing. But it means that we are trying to see their side. It means that we are trying not to be judgmental or too opinionated about a thing. I am often afraid when I get into discussions about things that I am coming off judgmental. I truly do not mean to be. So I feel in those situations I must strive to be peaceful. I can get excited about a topic and I know my voice will get louder and I will talk fast to make my opinion known. Why do I do that, what is the point? When all God has really called me to do is to love other people. It’s not my job to tell them how they should and shouldn’t think. My job is to love them and not start an argument just because I think they should think like me and do like me. What a boring world we would all live in if everyone thought alike. Where would the ideas come from if we all thought alike?
The other thing this verse tells me to strive for is holiness. Now this is something that we will never fully attain until we are home with Jesus. But it is something we should always strive for. Striving for holiness just means we are doing our best to live right with and for God. We want our lives to point to Him and to mean something for Him. It doesn’t mean we will never mess up. We most certainly will. It just means we get up and brush ourselves off and keep on trying.
The bottom line is this, not being at peace with others and not living a holy life will be obstacles to your relationship with God which is our goal. If we want to walk closely with the Lord, if we want to see Him in our everyday, we must strive for peace with others and for holiness. That means sometimes we agree to disagree and we just keep loving people. That means we do our best to live right with God. The NKJV puts it this way
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14 (NKJV)
My end goal is to see God and I want to see Him in my every day so I will make it my practice to pursue peace and holiness.
Restore 