Why Peace Has to Be Pursued: What Psalm 34:14 Taught Me About Reconciliation

"Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14 NIV

When I first read this verse, it seemed obvious. This is what we all should be doing, right? Turn from evil, do good, seek peace. Nothing complicated about it.

Then the devotional pointed out something that made me want to dig deeper. David gives us four things to do in this one verse, and the fourth one is the surprise. Peace must be pursued. That means peace is something you have to chase, and the reason is one I had never considered before. Pride, anger, and selfishness do not die on their own. You have to put in actual work to have peace, and you have to keep putting in work to keep it.

It went further. When Jesus was here on earth, He actively pursued peace, and He pursued reconciliation between God and man. I had never thought about it that way, and it made me think of accounting. When you reconcile the books, you get them balanced. That is exactly what Jesus did for us. We were deep in the negative, and we could not pull ourselves out of the dumpster we put ourselves in. So He balanced the books by dying for our sins so we could actually have a relationship with God.

The devotional I read, Reconciled for a Purpose, compared this to solving a math problem. When I was in school, you never got credit for just writing the answer. You had to show how you got there. The same is true here. If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, it is one thing to know that reconciliation is the answer to the disunity and injustice around us. It is another thing to actively engage in the actual process of reconciliation. The devotional called it the hard but good, messy yet beautiful, worth it kind of work, and I can definitely agree with that.

Here is what makes this personal for every believer. Second Corinthians 5:11 through 21 says that every believer is a minister of reconciliation, empowered by God Himself. That includes you and me. And Psalm 34:14 gives us the steps for how to do it.

Step one: turn from evil and do good. This means rejecting evil outwardly and addressing it inwardly, within our own hearts. We confess the sin that has put us in conflict with God and with other people, and we turn from our old ways.

Step two: seek peace and pursue it. Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the presence of restored harmony. When we seek peace, we become more than peacemakers. We become active participants in the process of restoration. We listen empathetically. We strive for understanding. We see the brokenness around us and we put in the work, because the kingdom is worth it.

And here is the part that takes the pressure off. Jesus already accomplished the work of reconciliation when He died on the cross. This is a process we have been invited into, and God is reconciling the world to Himself through it.

So the question is simple. Will we join Him?

Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com