April 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

In this prayer we are asking for the kingdom of the prince of peace. Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. We are asking that his kingdom may come.

Notice how the words righteousness and peace are used. They are parallel words. They mean about the same thing. When you do righteousness, you do what is right. But if you do right, you will find that you cannot keep "peace" with everybody. For instance, if one is to do right to the needy, their oppressors must be crushed (vv. 12-14). And only when justice or righteousness is done to the needy will there be peace. Peace is the state of affairs in which everything is right!

Some Christians think that we may pray this prayer only for the coming of the "spiritual" kingdom of the Lord Jesus. This is a sad mistake. We cannot speak about Jesus today without working for the kind of society that belongs to the prince of peace. The Lord Jesus would not recognize you as one of his own if you weren't committed to the kind of righteousness and peace he died to establish.

All of us must live and work as followers of Jesus Christ, subjects of the prince of peace. For us, politics and evangelism work towards the same goal—the revelation of the kingdom of God. You cannot have peace with God while you quarrel with your wife. And you cannot share in the righteousness of God while you oppress the needy or protect the oppressor. If you are totally committed to Jesus, you are committed to a totally new order.

The new order is coming. We are commanded to pray for its coming. But only our works can show how eagerly we want it to come.

We who belong to Christ must fight battles in our hearts and in the factory. We have to proclaim peace in our homes and in our cities. But we are on the winning team.

REFLECTIONS

Pray that God will help you bring peace to your workplace, your home, and elsewhere in your world.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.