Hearts at Peace
Isaiah 26:3-4 NKJV
[3] You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. [4] Trust in the Lord forever, For in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
What is it that you believe?
What captivates your thoughts.
What is it in your life that consumes your time?
I’m sure you have been asked these questions before. Maybe you have even pondered them.
We all have our own thoughts. We all have our own ideas. We also have our downfalls and distractions.
But are they your own thoughts and ideas?
Do they line up with the desires of your own heart, or with the desires the Lords?
Throughout Scripture a Follower of Christ is compared to sheep.
If sheep are left alone and to themselves they eventually will find their own demise.
So the comparison to sheep is pretty accurate.
If we are left to our own thoughts, guidance and guidelines it will eventually lead to a life of uncertainty.
It will lead to a mind that gets tossed back and forth. As we are tossed, peace is very hard to find.
In our modern world we talk about peace. We hear it in news broadcasts. We hear about it on the internet.
There are many, many people that are protesting for peace (which I have never truly understood the reason why).
The main definition of peace is to have no disturbance.
But many People believe in the secondary definition which is to have no wars or that war has ended.
If we actually read God’s Holy Word we will find that in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars.
Man will NOT be living peaceably until Jesus returns.
We will all live in a very sinful and corrupt world.
People protest in the name of peace. Many believe that if wars ended that there can be tranquility and no disturbance.
It is not until we have peace with God through Jesus Christ by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit will any heart have True peace.
I Thessalonians 5:3 NKJV
[3] For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
It is hard to witness what a person can do to another. It is a hard, stressful and a horrible thing to see families split over the smallest situations.
I have no peace unless I am certain that I have Christ! If I know I have Christ then His confident peace overwhelms my heart and settles it!
The only way that fear, doubt and worry gets pushed out is by accepting the Peace of Jesus.
I know it may sound a little mushy.
But imagine if we can find True peace!
Imagine not worrying about what’s happening in the news. Having the ability to face another day without the anxious feeling of disparity.
I strive to not allow my thoughts to captivate me. It takes work to put them under submission.
It truly is a battlefield of the mind.
Whatever you think will have a direct impact on how you feel and how you react. What you put in will eventually come out.
Imagine waking up in the morning to have no disturbance in your heart and mind.
Is it even possible!
Yes.
There is a promise of hope! Don’t we all need hope in our lives!
We spend so much of our time concentrating on all the bad in the world.
We concentrate on the struggles in our lives and those around us, it’s hard not to when you are suffering through it.
But we forget that it is God Himself that is allowing this all to happen.
Somehow some way the Lord has a plan and a purpose that we don’t see. He may allow a situation to happen that we never expected to be used for the Glory Of His name and Kingdom.
The war in someone’s heart may be a set up in someone’s life to be a Testimony of His Goodness and Faithfulness to bring the peace of God to it!
The struggle someone is going through may be their path to Salvation.
It is the sovereignty of God!
God has the right to rule over His creation, and He can do as he pleases without constraint or our permission.
But as the hardships come Jesus never leaves us, fosakes us! He promise the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us the peace that our feeble hearts need to endure.
How do we endure such things? How do we wade through the choppy waters of life and try to keep our thoughts at bay?
HIS peace!
Even in the chaos you can be in perfect peace!
How do we afford this peace that we so need in our lives!
Philippians 4:8-9 NKJV
[8] Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. [9] The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
We meditate.
God’s Word is Life.
God’s Word changes, shapes and molds us to conform our thoughts to His heart.
It will point out the sinfulness in our hearts and the Grace and Mercy of His.
We have peace at our fingertips.
We can obtain the Lord’s promise of peace and life everlasting, if we meditate on His Word.
We don’t just read His Word. We don’t just hear it or even study it.
We must meditate on it.
Meditating is to reflect on, to ponder, to consider over, to talk about, to re-read, to re-hear, to speak to others, and to hear it from the lips of others again and again.
We tend to read Scripture to fulfill our “time with the Lord”.
But do you soak your soul in it!
Do you weep at how amazing it is to have the very Word of your Creator sitting in front of you.
Oh how His Words are alive and active! How the promise and hope are there but also the wrath and justice of God are there too!
This brings peace to the heart!
This is the only thing that can settle it down to bring the peace that we so covet!
Today I challenge you to submerge your whole self into the Word of God.
Meditate on it in every way you can.
Look out and see His Glory in the color of the sky. Praise Him to hear His creation chirp in the trees.
Recognize that it is the sin of heart that separates humanity in fighting and wars.
Then Thank Him for the Glorious Promise of His Son that takes away all the sins of the world and wipes every tear.
Wars will come and go. War in the world.
Wars in our homes and even wars in our own minds.
John 16:31-33 NKJV
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Be of good cheer today. Be at peace with your Lord today and see what His peace can do in your heart and life!
Trust that Jesus is He that has over come the world and all that distracts our hearts because of it!
Pastor Ed