Group Traps

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1384. Today's Devo is called Group Traps. Hey there. We're the Alessi's a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.

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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Happy Thursday, everyone. Stephanie here.

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And I love that we're continuing on with our theme of peace over anxiety. And that this week will just leave you feeling so at peace with what God is doing in your life, with what he's doing in our world. We understand that things aren't perfect, but we can hold on to this. He gives us peace to live with. So let's dive into it. We are reading Matthew 5, 9 in the ESV version and it says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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Amen. You know, my sister in law, Sarah and I, one day for her birthday, we were making pavlova and it started off beautiful. I'm not quite sure when it went downhill, but it went downhill real quickly when I turned on the convection oven. And really we should have just left the oven at the normal setting, but I turned on convection because I wanted the pavlova to be a little bit crispier.

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And I don't, I did not know, I still don't know this, that when you turn the convection on, that's only like for a minute. Well, I left it in the oven for like 10 minutes. And of course within those 10 minutes, Sarah bolts to the kitchen from the living room and I'm like, what's going on? What's wrong with our pavlova? Sure enough, I turn into the, into the kitchen and there's a big old black smoke just billowing into the kitchen from the oven. And we open up the oven and there is a full on fire in the oven. And our pavlova was ashes, turned into ashes.

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And within five minutes a fire started. We had to. I grabbed a rag, I rinsed it with water, I threw the rag over the fire. That's a trick. That's a trick. Keep that in mind. And immediately the fire was out. And it was hilarious. So embarrassing. The house smelled like smoke for like three days. But it's okay, we don't talk about that. But immediately we had to go in and take out that fire with a rag.

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And it just Reminded me of disagreements because disagreements and arguments are a lot like a spark. And our reaction to a disagreement could fan the flame, or it could stop the spark. I love my small debate here and there. I love disagreeing in a respectful way and hearing other people's opinions and laying out how their opinions are wrong and how I'm right.

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Just kidding. I do love it, though. However, when it leads to a genuine conflict, I always ask myself if the debate was worth it. Was the debate fruitful? Did it aim for peace and agreement? Or did I just lead us to more anger and division?

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If this spark of disagreement only leads to division, then I have to blow out the flame and choose peace. Because blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Be the peacemaker today. You know, Proverbs says a soft answer turns away wrath when somebody disagrees with you.

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Are you responding with a soft answer? I understand it takes a lot of boldness to be the peacemaker, but that's why it says that they shall be called children of God. Listen, you know your group of friends, you know your people, you know how they prefer peace to be presented. You know the people you work around, you know that one person you always disagree with in their stance. And you know exactly what buttons to press to immediately start an argument.

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And you might even be right about a lot of the arguments.

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But it won't produce any fruit, and plainly it won't bless you. It's not about being passive.

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Listen to me. It's not agreeing to whatever someone tells you.

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It's simply choosing the peaceful route.

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And I have seen it firsthand. They will thank you for it later. And trust me, you want to be known as the peacemaker. You don't want to be known as the argumentative one. Your people in your life are the biggest blessing in your life.

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And it's more fun to just be at peace with them.

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And again, you're not here to be right. You are here to represent Jesus to them in every conversation, in every situation. You won't allow division to happen in your group of friends or in your family. In your group chaps, you will be the peacemaker and you will be called the sons and and daughters of God. Let's pray. God, we first of all thank you for the people that are in our life, the ones that agree with us and the ones that disagree with us. And God, we pray and we ask that you teach us how to be the peacemaker. It's hard nowadays. There's a lot of opinions being thrown around. However, your truth remains the same.

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Your word has never changed and it continues to say blessed. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. So God, we want to be a peacemaker today.

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No matter where we are, no matter who we're speaking to, no matter the situation, we are called to be peacemakers.

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We pray that we will bring the peace to every room we walk into and that we will be a representation of Christ. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in Today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.