God’s Treasure Chest

The book of Proverbs is like a treasure chest of amazing truths. It’s as if God gathered together hundreds of precious messages, threw them into a big box and gave it to His people to pick out treasure after treasure for the enjoyment, instruction and blessing of His children. And sometimes one of these proverbs jumps out of the page of the Bible with extraordinary timeliness and relevance. Such is the Scripture I have chosen for today.

In his letter to the Philippians (4:7), Paul talks about the peace which God brings to the human heart as being something that is beyond human understanding – and he is absolutely right. It is totally beyond human understanding that God would send His only Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin on the cross , so that we may be at peace with God (Romans 5:1) – in time and, more importantly, beyond time and into eternity. Knowing that our sin is forgiven and that God’s judgement for our sins will no longer fall upon us, is totally life-giving.

But there is another peace that is also vital for our human well-being – it is to be at peace with ourselves. In his letter to Timothy (6:6), Paul said that “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” I have seen down the years how inner peace impacts every area of our being – even our physical bodies. It is healing, it is life-giving. And where there s no inner peace that it can have a devastating influence on our health and well-being, as today’s Scripture implies.

Many of the people who have had wonderful healing on our Healing Retreats have come for healing of their symptoms, but have discovered that their most important need was for healing of the broken or distressed or angry or jealous or unforgiving heart. They were not at peace with themselves. There may have been sin that needed to be brought to the Lord, other people who needed to be forgiven, relationships that caused them distress and many, many other things. And then, when all these things had been dealt with and the heart was brought to peace, the Lord was able to move upon them in power bringing the deepest healing possible to every area of their lives.

So, today, when so much of the world is not at peace, and is struggling with the anxieties and distresses of the situation, may I encourage you to bring all the things that disturb your peace to the Lord, one by one, and then invite him to not only bring His peace into the situation but to bring His healing to every area of your being.

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for making it possible for me to be at peace God. And thank You that Your salvation also means healing. Show me those areas of my life where I am not at peace so that I can face the issues honestly and then bring each one to You for Your healing. In Your Name I pray, Amen.