Peace is an irrevocable gift given to us at salvation. John 14:27. It is an inner peace that remains no matter what our circumstances are. However, we can cover it up and not experience it when the gate to our words is not guarded.

Isaiah 26:3 revealed the two keys to maintaining our gift of peace. It says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Where our focus and trust lies determines our level of peace.

Our thoughts orchestrate our activities like a band leader leads. When our thoughts are synchronized with God’s word there is harmony. When we are off “key” then there is chaos.

Meditating on Scripture in context has really opened a new season for me. I’ve been struggling to memorize Romans 8. However when I began to meditate through it, my understanding opened. Meditating is a little like looking into a tide pool. In the quiet focus of repetition, hidden truths emerge.

We put up a fence to keep things in or out. However, if we don’t add a gate, we have no entrance or exit point. If we have a puppy in the backyard, we keep the gate closed so it can’t get out.

Let’s switch gears. Psalm 119:171-172 says, “My lips shall utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes. My tongue shall speak of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness.”

Our lips are the gate for our tongue.  We can’t express words without opening our lips. Isaiah 28:6 says, “…for strength to those who turn the battle back at the gate.” I used to consider this verse in regards to my mind.

Our mind is the battleground. The devil wants to control our mind ~ the house of our thoughts before we speak them. Is your gate open or closed? I love David’s prayer. Psalm 141:3 says, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Kind means to be gentle and pleasant. I want to stop right now. Think of someone that you are struggling with. Please take a moment and think kind thoughts.

Proverbs 4:23 says that unresolved issues will spring up when we least expect them. If we are entertaining unkind thoughts about someone we need to beware. They will become unkind words at some point.

Matthew 15:19 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…” Our heart is our belief center. If we believe that we have been wronged and we stuff it, it will seep into our thought processes. Allowing an offense to fester, not only destroys our health, but it defiles those around us. Hebrews 12:15. Forgiveness is a command not an option. Agape is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4.

1 Corinthians 14:1a in the Amplified says, “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire (this) love (make it your aim, your great quest…” Agape love is the evidenced fruit of the Spirit when we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. We cannot agape in our flesh. Flesh and agape are like oil and water. They do not homogenize. 

John 15:12 says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Loving others with God’s love touches the heart. We have His love the moment we are saved. Romans 5:5 says, “…the love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

We cannot love the unthankful in our own strength. Luke 6:35 says, “…For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” How can we emulate the Lord’s love? Galatians 5:16 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

I’m writing this on the heels of listening to a message that brought deep conviction. Do my words and actions always portray His agape love? The word ‘love’ in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. I encourage you to read it, inserting agape instead of love. Verse 13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I love conviction. It messes up my life. It shakes me out of complacency that I didn’t know I had. It reaches down into the ruts that I didn’t know I was stuck in. It brings course correction. When we embrace the Holy Spirit’s conviction, it keeps our feet on His path, so that we won’t get derailed down the road.

Psalm 119:2 says, “Blessed are those who keep (guard) His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” Complacency, ruts, lethargy, hidden sins, etc., block our capacity to be single-minded and wholehearted.

Who are your enemies? They are folks who are bound by satan to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:26. Psalm 119:98 says, “You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me.”

I used to read this as the enemies are ever with me, until I was meditating on this verse. God’s commandments are ever with us when we keep them; laying them up as treasure in our hearts.

Let’s follow one commandment. Matthew 5:44 says, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” The word ‘love’ is agape ~ God’s love that never fails.

Jesus commissioned us as His ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “…as though God were pleading through us…” Satan’s captives will not hear us unless His love shines through our words and actions.

In Psalm 119 there are many verses that use the word keep. There are two definitions. One is to guard and preserve. Psalm 119:69 says, “The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.”

The other is to lay up in the heart as treasures. Psalm 119:67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Same word, two different uses. Both affect the heart which is the seat of our emotions.

There is much fruit that glorifies the Lord when we memorize and meditate on Scripture. It is the love language of His heart. He has given it to us to lay up as treasure. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I know verse 20 says to lay up treasure in heaven, but we can make an application for right now ~ living in the present.

We are slaves whom we obey. We obey the Lord because we love Him. Jesus is our example. John 15:10 says, “…just as I have kept My Father’s commandment and abide in His love.”

Exodus 21:5. Context is a Hebrew servant that was given their freedom. It says, “But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.” We are free to sin, however, out of love we obey from the heart.

How is your heart? The Holy Spirit gave me seven ebooks in 2016 about the heart. It became the paperback “Victorious Heart.” What pictures are on the walls of your heart? Chapter two is entitled “Heart Interior Decorating.” The pictures in our heart dictate our words and our actions. It might be time to take down some of those time honored offenses that have enslaved us.

Jesus’ death on the cross broke the chains that bound us to satan’s slave block of sin. Romans 6:1-2 says, “…Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Slaves obey without question. We are slaves to sin or to obedience. The path of obedience is strewn with grace. We obey in our heart, but the Holy Spirit empowers us through grace to fulfill what the Lord requires of us.

Meditating on the truths from God’s word, weaves those truths into the fabric of our hearts. Memorizing takes concentration. It is a dedicated time set aside to lay up the treasure of His word in our heart. Let me challenge you with Psalm 119:4 which says, “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently.” A command is a call to obedience.

I have been working on memorizing Romans 6. The only way I can get a verse to stick is to repeat it over and over in phrases. I was on verse 16. It says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.”

As I kept repeating “…sin leading to death, or of obedience…” it hit me hard. Tears came into my eyes as the Holy Spirit highlighted the either or. It is either sin or obedience. Translated to either we are walking in our flesh or in the Spirit.

Years ago someone challenged something that was in my book. They said, “Marilyn, you cannot be so black or white.” The Bible is. Romans 6 testifies to its distinctness one way or the other. There is no middle ground ~ no gray areas.