Your Daily Devotional for September 12, 2006

 

September 12, 2006

 

Peace and Contentment

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

“And hereby we know that we are if the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”

 

1 John 3:19-21

 

Have you ever gone to bed and had a restless time trying to fall asleep? Maybe it was because you were excited about something that was going to happen or perhaps you were worried about something that had already happened. Many times people become restless and troubled because something in their life is not right with God.

 

On one occasion as our Lord prepared for His death, burial, and resurrection, He told His disciples, “Peace, I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 14:27). Christ assures us that we can have a confident Christian life through His peace. Only God can give the peace that can calm us no matter what situation we are in.

 

When Christians feel a lack of peace or assurance in their hearts, it is not because God hates them or their church family wants them to be miserable, but because of disobedience and rebellion in the heart. Many people will try to explain away their guilty feelings as being the pastor’s fault or another church member’s fault. But realize that as we see in our verse today, “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”

 

God knows our heart and knows the condition of it! We can’t hide behind the blame-shifting lies that our heart tries to come up with. Our heart knows when we are not right with God and it tries to explain away those guilty feelings. Don’t fall for the lies of your heart! As Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” God even tells us that our heart is going to try to deceive us!

 

Booker T. Washington describes meeting an ex-slave from Virginia in his book Up From Salvery: “I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labour where and for whom he pleased.

Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands.

In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay his debt, but that he had given his word to his master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise.”

This man could not have peace and contentment in his heart and he could not enjoy his freedom until his debt had been repaid. So it is with us.  As long as there is something in our heart that needs to be dealt with, as long as we have “unfinished business” with God, we will not know peace or contentment.  Do you find yourself with a heavy heart because of something you have done? Realize that God wants you to live a successful Christian life! Come to Him and let Him clear your heart so that you can live with peace and contentment today!

 

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