Daily Nuggets of Grace - Part 8: Peacemaker!Chikamu

Are We Really in Unity?

By the Holy Spirit, we are bound together in peace.

Really?

Does this feel like an ideal too lofty to attain? Is unity even possible? Has Jesus’ prayer (John 17) for unity brought forth any fruit?

Often, it feels that disunity abounds. Rifts in the church seem to spring up weekly. Honestly, it can be quite discouraging, so we need to remember what God tells us about unity.

Jesus, through His Spirit, established unity in His body, the church. We don’t need to go looking for it. We don’t need to establish it. We are called to keep the unity that He established. We need to guard it, tend it, take care of it. It’s worth our attention and effort because it‘s near to God’s heart.

God wisely and intentionally created us with great differences. We have different ideas. We serve different functions in the body of Christ. Even different churches serve various roles in the community. We also have different understandings of passages in the Bible.

And yet, we are all united as members of one body.

Our unity has great power in our witness in the world. Jesus prayed for unity in His church because He recognized that people’s salvation depends on it. Through our unity, the world will know that Jesus came from God.

We need to remind ourselves of the spiritual reality clearly stated in Ephesians 4.

We are one body under one Spirit. We have one hope, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God the Father.

So, even though we see divisions and have defects in the church body, we are one because all Christians are "in Christ.” Let's look beyond our failings and see the beautiful truth.

What can we do to improve our unity? Paul gives this in Ephesians 4:1-3. We are called to:

·Live according to who we are in Christ.

·Walk in humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.

·Seek to maintain the unity given by the Holy Spirit.

·Live within a bond of peace.

Let's not give up hope. Instead, let's build upon the unity that God established.

Now, Reflect and Respond:

What can you do to encourage unity within the body of Christ?

Let’s Pray:

Father, may I be a peacemaker, because peacemakers bring unity. Show me how I can promote the unity that Jesus prayed for. Amen.

Now, let’s dive into the scriptures around this theme…