Three little words that bring peace

Working on the theory that it's always good to know your sources, I found myself standing before a fair number of people and preached using the words of an unknown author!  But the words were not only sound but also fit the situation and audience to a tee. The words, a paraphrase of Hebrews 12. 11-15, went something like this:

'No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.

Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a right life, for those who live wrongly will not see God or be seen as His.

Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble or corrupt you and corrupt many.'

Here indeed is a passage that has it all:

Discipline - submitting oneself to it, taking it on as a lifestyle choice (for discipline is a decision) and using it on ourselves to help us to achieve.

Perseverance - When things get tough and the journey is hard and the conditions tiring - grab on, hand on and don't let go. Keeping on Keeping on will bring the desired prize.

Peace - Is the balm that heals wounds and mends situations. Living rightly and rightly with others makes philosophies real and hold up a mirror to God in our own living.

The world is at war with itself because these three attitudes are missing from the lives of so many within it. So often these small seeds are swept away by the hardness of heart and the howling breath of discontent. Today, will you hear His voice I wonder?

Now who said that soldier never get to hear God's word ;-)

Happy Wednesday :-)