The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year on December 10 in honor of the man who established the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel. Nobel, who died in 1896, was an industrialist and inventor with 355 patents attributed to him, but he is best known as the inventor of dynamite. It is believed that he did not wish to be known only as the man who invented such a destructive device as dynamite, so he took his fortune and created the Nobel Prizes. There are five of them, and one of them is the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded each year to the person who has, according to Nobel's will, "done the most or best work for the fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace conferences." (
Source.)
Peace is something everyone yearns for. All desire to be at peace with their Creator, to have peace within, peace in families, nations, jobs, and churches. But peace has proven to be a most elusive commodity, both for individuals and groups. I have read that out of 4,000 years of recorded human history, there have only been 300 years of peace. I have also heard it said that times of peace were only brief respites giving people time to reload for war! (From
a message by David Legge.)
This week, we will look at the seventh of the eight Beatitudes or blessed statements of Jesus Christ at the beginning of His famous Sermon on the Mount. This seventh Beatitude builds upon the previous six and correlates with the third that says,
"blessed are the meek." The meek are the ones who long for and help bring about this wonderful condition of peace. Jesus said,
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
In these Beatitudes, Jesus eloquently and powerfully describes the person who is a citizen of the kingdom of God. To embody these attributes is utterly impossible in and of our own strength, but with the Holy Spirit living within us, we can do all things, as Paul says, through Christ who gives us strength (
Philippians 4:13).
To be a peacemaker takes much work, and one must exert energy to help bring about peace. To do this, one must be poor in spirit, mourning over their sin and sins committed against them, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, and pure in heart. To me, the Beatitudes seem to ascend in levels of difficulty, and one of the more difficult of the Beatitudes is for us to be persons of peace who help bring about peace.
Ask the Lord to help you learn more about what it means to be a peacemaker. Also, ask Him to empower you to be the one who promotes and labors for peace.
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