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Length of Days - Search for Freedom

Friday, July 29, 2016

Be a Uniter, Not a Divider

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.” 1 Corinthians 1:10
This is most definitely an election year in the United States. I know I’ve already eaten my fill of not so tasty political speeches. I have witnessed:  division along party lines; division in race; division in every demographic possible. Paul told the Corinthians to agree with one another so there would be no divisions.

If you’re married, you know that loving people do not agree all of the time. If they do, one of them is not thinking. Disagreement, however, is not mean or angry; it’s not loud or rude; it does not slander or defame. Actually, disagreement is a wonderful sharing of ideas and points of view. Only the weak fear to hear another’s side.

In my Length of Days trilogy that takes place from 2112-2114, when political correctness has controlled the country, four distinct zones divide the nation, with no travel or contact between them.


Will our divisiveness today cut our nation in half, or even in little pieces? Or, can we be strong 
enough and mature enough to realize that it is up to us to bind our country together with your love. John Wesley addressed how to unite, to mend and not divide, on October 6, 1774. He said:
“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them: 1. to vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy; 2. to speak no evil of the person they voted against; and, 3. to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”
Can we put on our prayer shawls and humbly submit our words and spirits to God who will speak through us the loving and binding words that are needed right now? I know we can. We don’t even have to want to. We just have to want to want to, and to be obedient to the God of love. God will do the rest. Let us pray:

“Holy Father, Love divine, shine your light of peace on all of us. Not peace as some might see it, as weakness, but peace as strength through Jesus Christ, who was so determined to be obedient to you, ‘…he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem…’ when you were ready to call him home. May your kingdom come today, a kingdom of quietness and joy, so that we may take this election season and place it in your hands. For this day, may I want to want to choose your path where division is not the way to love. Forgive me when I have joined in the gossip and slander that defames your civil servants. I am not perfect and I must not demand perfection of them. I turn our blessed country over to you, Father God and pray through your son Jesus Christ that your will may be done in our beautiful and free land. Amen”
Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”
Copyright 2016 Doris Gaines Rapp

Length of Days trilogy, by Doris Gaines Rapp: All three are available in paperback and eBook at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com, as well at Cokesbury.com
Length of Days – The Age of Silence   (© 2014)
Length of Days – Beyond the Valley of the Keepers  (© 2015)

Length of Days – Search for Freedom  (© 2016)

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