Lay Up Peace In Your Heart

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

Hello friends and welcome back to our Peace Series. Today we begin the process of peace hunting in the Bible.

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

I have underlined some of the verse above that I want to expand upon. So, with this verse we know that when God turns His face towards us, He gives us peace, but I wonder if that peace comes from the way He looks at us.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Psalm 32:8

His loving eye on us... His peaceful expression turned toward us... His face shining graciously on us...

Is that the way God looks at us who are in Christ Jesus? Does He look at us and see past our sin and our hateful thoughts? Does He see straight through all that to our spirit? Does He look upon us with ONLY love? If so, His grace is so much bigger than I've ever imagined it to be. He knows all our sinful thoughts and actions yet He is so forgiving that, when He looks at us, He doesn't see our mistakes and shortcomings. He only sees us and how much He loves us. Wow. Doesn't that just put you in complete awe of the Father?

Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

Job 22:21-22

Be at peace with God and prosperity will come your way. Let's define that word - prosperity: the state of being prosperous 'a long period of peace and prosperity'. Very interesting indeed.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Back to our Job verse; Accept instruction from His mouth. Cross reference this statement with our Psalms verse above. Can you spot the similarities? It's funny how everything ties together today.

Back to Job: Lay up His words in your heart. This statement is exactly how we can achieve peace and continually have peace. We keep His words, like our Jeremiah verse above, in our hearts. We keep them close and meditate on these words.

Well, my friends, this series is starting off strong. I normally just stick to verses that specifically have our theme word in them, but this time I was throwing in others too. But all of them, despite some not having the actual word 'peace' in them, are very peaceful verses.

So, lay up these verses up in your heart because they are God's word (lay up peace!). Let them give you peace and smile! He looks at you graciously and lovingly. He gives you peace and prosperity.