Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us at the next Sunday worship service:
In-Person
9:00am & 10:45am,
Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Matters Of The Heart

“Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7. 

The Bible mentions the heart almost 1,000 times. Jesus spoke a great deal about the heart. The heart is a metaphor for the inner life.“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7). 

When people think about having a joy filled, happy heart they are usually thinking of what makes them happy. Have you ever stopped to contemplate what it means to be a man or woman after God’s own heart? To please God? Have you wondered how to make God happy? The Bible tells us how to make God happy and live a life that pleases Him. “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1) Hebrews 11:6 adds, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

Every day we make a decision about what is most important in our lives. There is a throne in each of our hearts with only room for one to sit. It is our choice who will sit on the throne. It is not an easy decision because our desires are tempting and when we let them take the throne of our hearts, things never end well. Say you let your desire of money take the throne of your heart, well next thing you know your bank account is zeroed and you’re left with a bunch of materialistic things.  No matter how many times you splurge, the things you acquire will never fill you and eventually you will be hungry for something new. In fact, we can put a lot of energy and thought into things and people that are supposed to make us happy, just to find out that they can’t.

Real happiness, however, is found in Christ and in His everlasting love. Like the old Children’s song says “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, Down in my heart to stay”, God is the one that provides it.Visualize the happiness God has in store: “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” (Psalm 16:11).

Discussion Questions: 

  1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 = No Joy and 10 = Full of Joy, how would you rate yourself today? What do you think are the reasons for rating yourself that way?
  2.  How can our hearts be changed to be like Christ’s?

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