How to Find the Peace You Desire

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In Christian circles we talk a lot about our hearts. How our hearts can be led astray. How we need to guard our hearts. How we need God to transform our hearts.

And for good reason.

Just read the Lord’s strong caution against blindly following our hearts: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19).

Sounds awful!

Power of Our Minds

Yet for all the importance of our hearts, I sometimes think we forget the power of our minds and the need to align it with God’s truth.

Like most of us, my mind naturally gravitates to self, sensationalism, control, and fear. To the flesh.

Every ache or pain, I imagine the worst. Every issue, I want to “figure” it out first before I take it to the Lord for help. Every struggle, I try to rationalize it or find a reason for it.

So while my heart may draw me in the wrong direction, my mind takes it a step further. It tries to justify that direction, plan it, and figure out how to make it happen or convince me it can’t be done.

In other words, my mind wants to take charge, to be in control.

But as a Christian, we are a new creation in Christ, our thinking should be His thinking, our reasoning should be His reasoning. Our desires should be in line with bringing Him glory.

Our control, our thinking, our very lives should be surrendered to God.

Finding Peace

Scripture tells us that filling our minds with God brings peace. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

We all like to feel the love of God, to get the high that comes with song and ceremony and setting. Yet it’s important we know the God of love too. [←Tweet this.]

It seems Christians are much more likely to attend a concert than regularly attend worship. To gather in fellowship rather than for Bible study. To spend time immersed in nature or leisure than in the Word.

But we need to do more than feed our feelings for God.

If we want to experience the whole of God’s peace, we also need to feed our minds with Him. We need to know who He is, how He thinks, and what He likes and dislikes.

In exposing ourselves to daily Scripture and sound biblical teaching, we saturate our thinking with God, and our minds are transformed along with our hearts.

There’s nothing wrong with attending Christmas concerts and gatherings, taking hikes, or singing songs. They help us feel near God and each other. And that’s good.

But it’s in Bible study, hearing the Word preached, and prayer where we learn who He is and what we are professing.

It’s in feeding our minds with the thoughts of God that they will become set on the Spirit.

It’s in feeding our minds with the thoughts of God that they will become set on the Spirit. Click To Tweet

And that’s the path to life and peace.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” Romans 8:5-6.

Reflection: Do you think as Christians we are gravitating toward feeding the heart more than the mind? Do you think worship has become more about a feeling than about knowing God? How do you care for your heart and your mind?

Since beginning more than 3 years ago, I’ve counted more than 3,000 gifts in Ann Voskamp’s Joy Dare! What a blessing! So here we go: #3282–3302, read the entire list by clicking here.

Harvesting gourds and last of the raspberries; Listening to a wonderfully funny address by Liz Curtis Higgs; Fall decorating with pressed leaves, prairie grass, gourds, and acorns
Breathtaking brilliance of a sun-filled fall morning; Warmth of a car heater after a chilling football game; New-kitten softness
Friends who encourage me in little things,like my new glasses; Freezer full of deer burger;Helping a young mom find hope
Hanging out on the living room floor with my 2 youngest: wrestling, laughing, loving; Digging potatoes from the moist ground; A candle’s glow
19 years of being mom to my second-born, what a blessing he’s been; Rach “kissing” an earthworm; Night with nowhere to be and no packing to do
No surgery needed for hubby’s mom after falling and breaking bones in her wrist/hand; Full day of outdoor fun with family; Supper around a campfire
Hugs by friends; Exploring the divinity of Jesus in Bible Study–fascinating; Apples dipped in homemade salted caramel

By His grace ≈

Julie

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Cecelia Lester (Quiet Spirit) says:

October 28, 2014 at 2:25 pm

Julie: True worship allows us to KNOW God. It is not supposed to be about our feelings. We can only care for our heart by spending time with God, by reading His Word, and fellowshipping with llike-minded believers.