Rev. E. Anderson
RECONCILE
This is a choice word that is found in our dictionary and is one that certainly needs to be seen in action and deed in the context of relationship with God and men.
One of the deft definitions afforded is ‘to be friendly with someone after estrangement or to re-establish friendly relations between (two or more people)’. It is always a sad thing to note people who should be friends and enjoying the company of one another in a state of opposition and no longer feeling good to one another. Certainly it is a tragedy when seeming love turns to animosity and there is no longer any good will manifested to each other. The broken accord somehow needs to be repaired so that union and communion is restored. There has to come the reconciling that brings both parties together and to cause a fresh relationship to be birthed and developed that excels what was known previously.
Reconciliation needed to be brought about between God and men so that there would be a healthy, pleasurable and profitable relationship created and cultivated to eternal advantage. Regrettably there came a breakdown in relationship in the Garden of Eden between God and Man and man was the offending party. How all men have lost out and how the world has become confused and chaotic as a result. The alienation from God has not proved helpful one bit because man has degenerated and become a horrid creature through sin.
Thankfully God never lost His love for men or interest and sought and worked out the best means by which He could prove His unquenchable love for him and save him from his sinful and wretched, sinful state. The Christian message focuses on the fact that God through His Son became a man in order to pay the penalty due to his sin and to rescue him from his degenerate and doomed situation. The Cross of Christ is where sin was fully atoned for and becomes the place where every sinner can be wholly forgiven and reconciled to God and where a divine friendship and eternal future can be settled. The Bible states that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world ( that is man) to Himself’ – 2 Corinthians 5: 19. You need no longer be an enemy to God in opposition because He has made it possible for you to be at peace with Him and to know a dynamic fellowship with Him now to your good.
Christ told the story of a son who had made a mess of his life and needed to go back to his father and be reconciled to him – Luke 15: 11-24. He finally had to good sense and will to return and be at one with his father and enjoy his friendship and a better future. It may be that you ought to make your way to God and get things straightened out so that what remains to you in life I blessed by a vibrant accord with God.
Reconciliation also must take place between people on earth. It is an issue that must be attended at the human level. For those who profess to be Christians they must make sure that they do not live in hatred and animosity to other people, and certainly so in the Christian community. Christ stated that God would not receive any gift laid on the altar to him if such a spirit and state existed in the giver. He said: ‘If you bring your gift o the altar, and there rememberest that your brother hath ought against you; leave your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift’ – Matthew 5: 23, 24. It is important to have sweet and sound relations in the church, family, society etc.
‘Every person should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones’ – Anonymous
PRAYER
May my relationship with you O God be all that it should so that I may know a healthy accord and a blessed life in and through you. Teach me to live in a wholesome harmony with all men.
