Pray And Work For Peace In The Home Series

Everybody is looking for peace. We want peace in our souls, we want peace in our country, and we want peace in our homes. Peace is perhaps the most precious possession that anyone can have. The exciting thing for the Christian is, that when you have Jesus in your life you can have peace on a daily basis regardless of your circumstances! It is possible to have a mansion, great job, perfect body or prosperous finances and still not have peace.

When I was a teenager I was a fan of Jerry West, the great basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, “Mr. Clutch” he was called. He wrote a book, and I noticed the subtitle was, “My Special Life, And My Tormented Life.” Being successful, rich and a person of notoriety doesn’t ensure that you’re automatically going to have peace. Yet, conversely we can have next to nothing, and still have perfect peace. That’s because God is peace. He’s the author of peace and He wants to give us that peace. The truth is we can’t make peace (not in our home or in our marriage), but what we can do is sow the right seeds. As we sow the right seeds and as we water them with our tears and prayers, its incredible how that peace can grow. Let’s look at our next principle on the home.

“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house” (Proverbs 21:9).

The ancient middle-eastern homes were often flat roofed. Apparently they would have a getaway place, sort of like a giant porch up on their roofs. According to this scripture, Solomon would crawl up to the top of the house just to get away from his wife, and hopefully get a few moments of peace. He had a beautiful house (a wide house), and yet he didn’t have peace in his home. Though the context of this verse is that of a contentious woman, it could certainly just as easily be about a surly man. There’s no reason to think that women are more argumentative than men. But the fact is, a quarrelsome mate is pure torture. And it’s not like this person was cranky just once in a while, the sense is that it was a constant challenge. The husband or wife just could not get away from the irritableness.

I’m sure in his mind he was thinking something like, “I really don’t get it, we have a lovely home, a good life, plenty of food…what is it that you’re so unhappy about?” He couldn’t deal with her ungrateful spirit any longer. Apparently things had gone on like this week after week, month after month, perhaps even year after year. So finally this fellow came up with a policy of self-preservation (not the first choice, but all he could do really). It really is sad how far down some relationships can go. When God gave Adam and Eve to each other, He told them He was going to give them the greatest blessing He ever could – a one soul companion! It was His number one earthly blessing. Adam already had animals, a garden and a job. Surely, just about everything a man could wish for. But God poured out His special favor when He said, “I’m going to bless you with a life-long companion.” That is what makes this verse in Proverbs so pathetic. A relationship that was meant to be a great blessing and strength had degenerated so much that in fact, it was tearing him up on the inside. Whether it is the husband who is the main issue or whether it’s the wife, we must seek peace in the home!

But, you say, “I can’t make my home be peaceful, I can’t make my wife be settled, and I can’t make her feel comfortable.” But what you can do is sow seeds!

If we will sow the following 6 seeds, then we will make great head way towards peace:

1. PRAY for Peace

I’m convinced that a lot of times we are trying to negotiate peace, or trying to legislate peace, or trying to create peace when first of all, we should be praying for peace! God told us to pray for peace in our “Jerusalem”, Psalms 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem….” We know that all of the Bible is written for our admonition and for our profit. In Acts 1 God told His discouraged disciples, to begin a concentric outreach to the nations, “I want you to reach out from your home (Jerusalem), then to your region and finally to your world.” We all have our own “Jerusalem”, it’s where we live - our home. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem then is praying for the peace of the gospel to touch everyone in our home front.