Lifetime Daily DevotionsSample

An Instrument of God's Peace

Romans 6:13

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,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
How many times Ive read or quoted or prayed the prayer of St.
Francis of Assisi . . .

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

That's the first line, but then he goes on with how he desires to be used as an "instrument." I began thinking about what I was reading, and quoting, and praying. An instrument--lets say a musical instrument. Whats unique about it?

Well,

it can be picked up or put down it can bring forth beauty and loveliness or it can bring forth harshness, discord, and dissonance if it's well made, it makes a prettier sound it's useless without someone to play it
the more talented or gifted the person is who plays it, the lovelier the sound and the more successful the performance

You, Lord, You must make me an instrument of Your peace--thats beyond my capability. Oh, I can try, but You know very well that it will be a hit-or-miss proposition. Ill say something hateful and hurt someone or get hurt, or tired, or frustrated, and there will go all my "music." But how wonderful it is to be fashioned and used by You to bring beauty and love and harmony into my world. I want to be Your instrument.

And why "peace"? Why did St. Francis believe it was so important? Is it "relevant" in our world today?

Yes.

You see, as an instrument of His peace, instead of reacting to hate, I respond with love. I have the wisdom and power to do that because of the peace that I experience as Christ lives in and through me.

Pardon produces peace, and not until I have pardoned will I have peace.

Faith nurtures peace, and only faith can plant the seed of peace.

Hope gives birth to peace, for as I set my mind on "hope," I will have peace.

Light reveals peace, for if you are filled with light within, with no dark corners, then the outside will be radiant too, as though a floodlight were beamed upon it (see Luke 11:36).

Joy releases peace. How often I have found that as I give voice to joy, then peace is released.

If I do not demand consolation, understanding, and love for myself, but seek to give these to others, peace will be the result. If I give, I will be at peace.

If I die, then the Lord can use me as an instrument of His peace.

Lord, You tell me in Romans 6:13 that I choose either to present the members of my body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, or to God as instruments of righteousness. To be picked up and used by sin or to be picked up and used by You . . . why, there's no debate. There is nothing to discuss. I choose to present myself to You.

So once again, I read or I quote or I pray . . .

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace...please.