DATE POSTED Friday, 2023-01-27
WRITTEN AT: Live Oak, FL
SCRIPTURE FROM: Colossians 3:15-17
TRANSLATION: Amplified Bible (AMP)
BIBLE TEXT: 15 Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise]. To this peace indeed you were called as members in one body [of believers]. And be thankful [to God always]. 16 Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus [and in dependence on Him], giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
APPLICATION: Isn’t it interesting how young men and women will get on a ballfield, play a game together, and quickly overlook the rules of unity and teamwork when they don’t get their own way? However, when an umpire has control of the game, players know the rule – you either respect and obey the umpire or you will be kicked out of the game. Like the umpire, God demands our respect and obedience when His peace comes over us and fills our heart. Now, just to be sure that we don’t pick up that phrase and use it arbitrarily in our lives to make it sound to the world like we have a keen sense of hearing God’s approval on our decisions, I must remind you that God will never give you peace in your heart about something that is contrary to what He has commanded in His Word. I believe it is interesting that this lesson comes immediately before God teaches us how married men, married women, children and workers will succeed in life – the answers to peace in their lives and relationships. Friends, if you have accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, then you have basically asked Him to lord over you and call the shots in your life. Since He created you, He knows about the intricate design He placed within you and therefore how you will understand when there is peace in your heart about a decision you want to make, vs when uneasiness abounds. God gave us His Book of Instruction – the Bible, to be our rule book, reminders, and our voice from the Almighty. As we study God’s Word about a subject, and we feel that sweet assurance that we understand what God has taught us, then He will quickly bring back that teaching to us when we need it most. What we must be very careful about, is that there are two voices out there. While we are in the world, its leader (Satan) will be actively trying to steal our heart from his enemy, God. Satan will tell us exactly what we want to hear, and we may say that we have ‘peace of heart’ about something. But for the child of God, who is in close communion with our Savior, it will be very much like a married couple who, after so many years, can finish each other’s sentences. This is because they know each other’s heart, their likes and dislikes, and what they stand for. If you say you accepted Jesus as Lord, yet you have no relationship with Him, how do you commune with Him? How do you receive confirmation, or peace of heart, from Him on decisions you want to make? Who will keep you on the straight and narrow way while here on earth? Unfortunately, we receive only added stress, worry, hatred and disloyalty to one another when we depend only on what transpires in our lives each day without Jesus Christ. Decisions that are based on these emotions and egged on by Satan and his demons, will only lead to more stress, more worry, more hatred, continued disloyalty and unrest. But when we place our hand in the hand of the one who created us and the beauty of the world around us, we can soon feel comfort in the power of the One who holds us in the palm of His hand. Being assured of God’s love for us, will lead us to live out that love to our family, neighbors, coworkers and the world. This gives us peace within and gives us enough peace to share with others who need Jesus. This replenishes our heart where songs of praise come from, and where our hearts are revived to a deep desire to know God better so that we might live out His qualities in everything we extend to others.
BLESSING(S) NOTED: The formula for peace is made clear for us – let Jesus Christ be the controlling factor in our hearts! Peace with God results in the peace of God. Filled with that peace, we can pass that along to others that we come into contact with.
PRAYER: Lord, this life is filled with so much stress and evil that is greater than anything we can handle. Thank you for this promise of peace that comes from You, that gives us a calm assurance of whose we are and where we are going. Like all good news, we want to share this joy with those that we come into contact with, so Lord I implore You to strengthen my readers, listeners and I with Your peace that surpasses all human understanding. Open the eyes of the unsaved that we will meet today. May they desire Your peace because of the evidence of it in our lives. Please help them to know Christ and know peace! AMEN!
FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!