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peace & the heart

2 Chronicles 16:9  NLT

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  What a fool you have been!  From now on you will be at war.

There is a time when you have to stop.  It is one of those moments in life when you realize that God is calling, He is working in you, and the outcome ahead is not what you expected.

It is because God sought you, He chose you, He held your heart like a potter forms clay into something more beautiful than what you can imagine.  That is our God.  While God was seeking us, literally wooing us to Himself, our eyes were opened to him.  Many people chose to pursue God.

Jeremiah 29:13  NASB
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

We find Him when we seek Him.  But notice the end of the verse above.  Those who find God are seeking Him with all of their heart.  This is not a half-hearted endeavor.  This is not a ‘Sunday only’ happening.  No, this is when we recognize the vacancy or emptiness in our heart without God.

Proverbs 4:23  NLT
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

That emptiness of our heart is filled with God, yet the most difficult thing to deal with is when we open our hearts to things that haven’t been filtered by God.  From our hearts flows direction and passion for life.  Guard your heart because God says it is important.

The next two verses offer us insight into how we guard our hearts.  It literally is through the peace God offers that the guarding begins.  We are not puppets.  God allows us to choose His peace or choose something else to guard our hearts.

His peace comes through knowing Him, through pursuing God with an open heart.  His peace ends up surrounding and flowing through our hearts.  Read slowly through the next two verses:

Philippians 4:7  NLT
Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 14:30  NLT
A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.
Philippians 4:6 says that when we worry less and pray more peace comes.  Peace brings health.  Peace brings insight.  Peace brings the love of God to be real and strong in the middle of our lives.  I need and want that peace.

I pray that others see the peace God brought into our lives and begin to crave that peace for themselves.  Peace, being at peace with God, is much like a light that shines strong drawing people toward it.  Peace comes from God alone!

2 Corinthians 4:7  NLT
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
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