Teaching Series: Enlarging My Heart

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).

We cannot control where problems come from. Some times they are internal, you cause them yourself. Sometimes they are external. But here’s God’s promise. If you give Him your problems, in exchange He will give you His peace.

That doesn’t mean that He’s going to take away your problem. Peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is the ability to cope with it. When you give God your problems, He gives you the power to deal with that problem. He gives you the hope to cope with that problem. Now, what you have to do is take the initiative. Peace and faith run on parallel tracks. God says, if you want to get His peace, you have to go to Him on faith and you have to take the initiative.

Four Wrong Places to Look for Peace

  • We tend to look for peace by having more stuff.
  • We tend to look for peace through an activity.
  • We tend to look for peace through some kind of drug.
  • We tend to look for peace through relationships.

How do we develop a peaceful heart?

A Peaceful Heart is a consistently pure, passionate and patient heart.

If you don’t have a pure heart, you are not going to be at peace with God. If you don’t have a passionate heart, you are not going to be a peace with yourself. If you don’t have a patient heart, you are not going to be at peace with others.

God’s Plan for a Peaceful Heart

Priority

You were created to have only God as your first priority. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33). When God is your top priority in life, everything else falls into place.

Exchange

Exchange your problems for God’s peace. “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you peace” (Matthew 11:28).

Accept

If you want to develop an ongoing peaceful heart, you have to learn to accept your limitations. There are things that you cannot control in life. Quit focusing on your limited. Focus on God’s unlimited power. “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Confession

When you are impure peace goes out the window. You got to purify your heart so that you can have peace again. God’s plan for purification is confession. Confession is simply agreeing with God that you have sinned. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Enjoy

Enjoy God’s eternal peace. When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are celebrating that God’s eternal plan for peace has been completed. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God wants you to have peace for all eternity. Settle your eternity and you will settle your heart. That starts by accepting God’s gift of eternal peace through Jesus Christ.