I have a hot temper. People I know in real life don’t believe me because I hardly show it. That would be thanks to my INFP-ness. INFPs don’t like confrontations, so even though my temper flares up quickly more often than I like, I reign it in.
The Bible tells us to, “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18, NLT).
The catch that I found is that though I try to maintain the peace between myself and others, I can be in turmoil inside.
Christians like to throw around the phrase, “Let go and let God.” It’s so cliche, but it’s good advice. Just because something sounds trite doesn’t mean it’s not worth listening to.
I had to let go of the things I bottled up inside. Living in peace with everyone can have consequences. It can mean we never feel justified or mollified. It may mean someone gets away with their little digs and jabs. Those add up, and we could only bottle them up for so long.
If we keep bottling things up inside, we’re not living in freedom. Soon, we will either explode at the people around us, or we will implode and end up with other problems (like burn out, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, etc).
Living in peace with everyone goes beyond being polite, cordial, or diplomatic. It must go deeper than our attitudes and handling volatile situations well. As with everything that God wants to deal with us, living in peace has to do with our hearts.
We really do need to let go, and then let God heal the brokenness, let God become our Justifier, and let God create something beautiful from the ashes in our lives.
We need to let God be God. We need to let Him carry us in through those situations that drive us crazy. We need to let God work on the hearts of the people that push all our buttons. We need to let God do His thing, because His thing works. His thing is the best solution every single time. He handles situations better than we ever could, and He’s more than happy to help us out.
We’re not in this life alone. When God tells us to live in peace, He’s there to show us how. We need only ask and then step back. When we let go and let God be God, there is freedom. We will find freedom in living in peace. We will find freedom in letting go. We will find freedom in letting God be God.
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