The world is freaking out, and we have the solution! When we allow God to love us we are made whole. From that wholeness we will trust God deeply. When we trust him, we walk in his promises and experience His provision, even during a pandemic. The world needs this kind of wholeness, the world needs peace. How will the world know this love that makes us whole? Through a united church.
Unity Starts With Personal Peace
Jesus gave us his peace. His peace is more than inner tranquility; it also means wholeness. Jesus gives us his wholeness. Jesus gave us his whole and complete relationship with the Father. We have peace / wholeness with the Father. Amen!
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Out of that whole relationship, we can unite with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Then we can turn that love toward the world and inspire them to respond to God’s love and receive peace. It starts with God and flows through us to the world.
A Diverse Church Unified In Our Sonship
If we can lay down our denominational differences, we would realize that there are billions of people who call Jesus, Lord. Those are our brothers and sisters. We’re called to love each other in such a way the world concludes that we’re Jesus followers.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
We may express our beliefs differently, we may have different callings and giftings, we may have different focuses within the body of Christ, but we’re all one family in Christ. If we can lay aside our differences and acknowledge this singular truth, we will be a powerful force in this world. And the world needs the church to be powerful right now.
Our unity in Christ as children of God should compel us to walk in love toward one another, the kind of love that testifies of our sonship in Christ.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I also pray for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
It’s Simple
It’s a simple process:
God loved us and died for us while we were still sinners
We respond to his love for us by loving him
Jesus commands us to love one another
Jesus says our love for one another will testify that we’re his disciples
Jesus prays that we’ll be united in him in such a way that it compels the world to believe
The result is believing world because we loved one another and turned that united love to the world
While the world is still in shock from the Coronavirus, the church has the opportunity to show them our inner peace and our united love, which will compel them to believe God sent Jesus for them too.
Pray
Take some time to pray and open your heart to God’s leading. He will show you who to love and how to walk in love in these uncertain times. I walk you through a meditation to hear from Him at the end of the message at the top of this page.
