Unity Seed – Pursue Peace: Being United

Key Verse

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1 (NIV)

Short Reflection

We’ve recently had a discipleship blog post talking about living together. The psalmist goes beyond that and brings us to ask ourselves, “In which way or manner will we be successful in living together?” The answer is by “Being united”.

We are different from one another in many ways – age, status, country, church, color and so on – these may cause a big confrontation of working or living in unity. Because God’s purpose is to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth through Christ, we need intentionally to remain united.
 
When I finished my secondary school studies and succeeded in the National Test, I was allowed to continue to University. I had to move from the Burundian countryside to the capital city. I didn’t have any relatives to stay with, so I joined people with whom I could rent a house together. Five of us lived together with a common goal. It was a small house so we had to sleep together. We prepared and shared food together. We came from different churches and backgrounds, but we did things in “Unity”. This was seen in how we loved, respected, understood and supported each other. All these four things brought us to living in peace in that small house.

How did love, respect, understanding and supporting each other help us to be united and pursue peace by being “All for One”? We decided to heed Jesus’ command in John 13:34 to love each other like Jesus loved us. We all wanted to be respected, so we prioritized 1 Peter 2:17 and “show proper respect to everyone”. We took time to understand each other, trust in the Lord, and not lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). In this continual journey of pursuing peace, we knew none of us were meant to go through it alone – we knew it is very easy to carry a heavy bag with each other than to carry it alone. When God gave us blessings, love, or other gifts, we knew it was very important to share it with and support each other. We remembered Peter’s words: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

There are many virtues that are not mentioned above which could help us be united. We are the church and we all form one body which is Christ. Let our diversity be a tool for making greater and bigger the Kingdom of God in unity. Just as the Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit is inseparable, let the pursuers of peace run after this perfect unity. The identity of putting on Christ makes us all one in Christ Jesus. Once there is unity, everything is good and pleasant.

Lord, let this reader and I be “All for One”, and may we embrace the priority of being united.

This is the second in the “Pursue Peace” series of blog posts and is written by Evariste Macumi, a PEER Servants volunteer from Bujumbura, Burundi.