We live in a troubled world! Three weeks ago we began a series of sermons on prayer and we talked about peace. We saw that Peace, shalom is a very positive concept of calm, tranquillity, serenity, harmony, reconciliation, wholeness, completeness, well-being. And we saw how we can experience God’s peace in our own lives by fixing our minds on God.
You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 (RSV)
Two weeks ago we looked at the first section of this prayer.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
Love instead of hatred, pardon for injury, faith in place of doubt. These are the blessings of God’s peace, which so many hurting people desperately need to receive.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
With the prayer of St Francis, we can spend time in prayer to help us overcome our own hatred and anger. We pray so that God will give us His love in this terrible situation. And then we pray so that God can use us to help other people to let go of their hatred and learn to love. “Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”
where there is injury, let me sow pardon;
When we receive God’s forgiveness, God then calls us to forgive others who have hurt us. Using the prayer of St. Francis, we can spend time in prayer to help us forgive those who have injured us. Then we pray so that God can use us to help others to forgive the injuries they have experienced. “Lord, where there is injury, let me sow pardon.”
where there is doubt, let me sow faith;
Using the prayer of St Francis, we can spend time in prayer bringing our own doubts and questions to God and listening for His answers. We pray so that our own faith is strengthened. And then we pray so that God can use us to help others overcome their doubts and find true faith. “Lord, where there is doubt let me sow faith.”
In Christ, God draws near to all who are consumed with hatred and overwhelmed by hurts and struggling with doubts. And God offers his love and pardon and peace. We have thought about these things before. This evening we continue in the Prayer of St. Francis.
Lord make me a channel of your peace.
where there is despair, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, let me bring light;
and where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope;
A man can live for a few weeks without food. A man can live for a few days without water. A man can live for a few minutes without air. But a man cannot live for even a few seconds without hope.
Looking at the dreadful state the world is in we can easily fall into despair? When that happens the way forward is simple. We need to stop looking at our own circumstances and instead look at God. Somebody said, “A pessimist finds a problem in every opportunity, but an optimist finds opportunity in every problem.” Don’t despair! God is the answer!
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Our Christian hope looks beyond the suffering of the present to our glorious hope in Christ. Sometimes we have to let go of the past in order to enjoy the present, and be able to dream of the future.
Especially with those who are mourning and grieving, God calls us to share this hope we have in Christ.
REFLECTION – Where there is despair, let me bring hope
Are you in despair? Bring that despair to God. Find your hope in God.
Do you know anybody who is in despair?
What can you do this week to share God’s hope with them?
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Make me a channel of your peace:
where there is darkness, let me bring light;
Darkness stands for the Christless life
Darkness is hostile to the Light
Darkness stands for the ignorance of life apart from Christ
Darkness stands for the chaos of life without God
Darkness stands for the immorality of the Christless life.
Darkness is characteristically unfruitful.
Darkness is connected with lovelessness and hate
And darkness is the abode of the enemies of Christ and the final end of those who will not accept him.
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light
shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
You sometimes hear it said of a person, “He brightens up the room” – we should be people who brighten up the room !!
REFLECTION – where there is darkness, let me bring light
Are you in darkness? Bring that darkness to God. Let God’s light shine into your life.
Do you know anybody who is in darkness?
What can you do this week to make God’s light shine into their lives
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Make me a channel of your peace:
and where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian. G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936)
Joy is the serious business of heaven. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about. The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him. Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899)
The trouble with many men is that they have got just enough religion to make them miserable. If there is not joy in religion, you have got a leak in your religion. – Billy Sunday
There are often very good reasons to be sad. Especially in times of grief and bereavement it is right to mourn and to weep. Christians are called to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and weep with those who are weeping. And God calls us to share his joy with those who are sad.
1 Peter 1:3 ¶ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 ¶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
How can we know this joy? Joy comes from the presence of God – so to find true joy we must draw near to God. And we draw near to God through His Word. We draw near to God in worship. We draw near to God through prayer. And as we do so, God will fill us with His joy, the joy which nothing and no one in the world can take away.
John 16:24 Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
REFLECTION – where there is sadness, let me bring joy
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Are you experiencing sadness? Bring that sadness to God. Find your joy in God.
Do you know anybody who is sad?
What can you do this week to share God’s joy with them?
Make me a channel of your peace:
where there is despair, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, let me bring light;
and where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
