Strife and division scripture12/10/2023 ![]() ![]() May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” John 17:23 (NLT) God calls us to show love and communicate with others in an encouraging way. ![]() And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” John 17:21 (NLT) “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one-as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. “Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 30:12 (NIV) “And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.” Jeremiah 32:39 (NLT) Some of his final thoughts before his death were on unity. Jesus prayed for unity for his followers. We need to self-moderate and take appraisal of our motives and of the potential outcome of our actions, behaviors and communication and judge them based on God’s communication guidelines. For that reason, we are going to have to be more intentional about when, how and IF we engage with others. Unfortunately so many of us take the bait. Therefore he sets traps to lure people right into division. It’s a trap of the devil that so many of us can easily get lured into.Ĭlearly if God’s desire is unity, then Satan will desire division. I found myself asking, “Why do people do this? Why do they feel the need to say something…to correct or condemn others…to give their two cents? Do they genuinely think that their comments and interactions are helpful? Do they not see how this fuels a fire of conflict and division? Why do people get sucked in?” Bam! Division! Strife created unity gone. ![]() These comments stirred up quite a storm of conflict, especially amongst Beth Moore’s fans against this commenter. Someone had replied with a couple of comments about posting pictures of yourself reading your Bible, indirectly insinuating that maybe these are not genuine and that it puts focus on yourself instead of on God. It was a cute photo that her daughter had taken of her dog crammed in a chair behind Beth while she was trying to read her Bible. It was definitely not helpful, encouraging, or promoting peace or love in any way to myself or my readers.Īdditionally, I saw some other passive-aggressive comments responding to a photo that Beth Moore had posted on Instagram. The comment seemed to serve no other purpose than to attempt to cause strife, division, and condemnation. I received yet another divisive comment last week (which was not approved/posted since it didn’t adhere to my comment policy). I’ve written before that I unfortunately get a lot of hateful emails and comments on my blog, many of them from Christians. In the next post, we’ll look at some practical ways to promote unity. This week we’ll look at what God’s heart is on the matter of unity and some ways to measure our hearts and motives against scripture. I decided to compile my journal notes and scriptures on the matter to write about after experiencing and seeing some divisive interactions myself this past week. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35 (NIV) He wants us to be known by our demonstration of love. Unfortunately some of the nastiest and most divisive people are Christians, which I believe saddens God. He is the source of all unity, and he truly desires unity, not divisiveness. We truly are a broken world, and only God can mend and unite. So many things keep us divided…politics, racial issues, public health issues, gender and sexual identity/orientation issues, theology issues, etc. It’s not surprising due to the fact that there has been so much division in the world these days. The theme of “unity” has come up quite a few times over the past year or more in my readings, journaling, and prayer time. ![]()
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