Photo courtesy of Nagesh Jayaraman.

We hope you enjoy this re-post from December 4, 2013. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!] – 1 Peter 3:11, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Imagine for a moment that you greatly desire to start a business. From the get-go, you are driven by visions of great success, and in hot pursuit of your dreams you do the following:

1) Pray for God’s blessings on your business.

2) Sit down at your desk every day and wait for customers to come flocking to you.

You don’t identify your market. You don’t research your competiion. You don’t advertise. You don’t sell. You don’t provide any service. And…you don’t survive.

A business person who dreams of business success, but who doesn’t do the things necessary to bring about that success, isn’t a business person. He or she is, in the words of business consultant Michael Gerber*, a “technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure.” Likewise, a Christian who dreams of spiritual success, but who doesn’t do the things necessary to bring about that success, isn’t a successful Christian. He or she is a spiritual failure.

The pinnacle achievement of the Christian life – heart peace, defined as freedom from fear, agitation, and moral conflict coupled with harmonious relationships with God, man, and self – cannot be attained by simply desiring it. We must pursue it regularly, eagerly, and passionately if we have any hope of claiming it for ourselves. The pursuit of peace begins with the shunning of evil in our lives, which means we must shun everything God clearly reveals as sin in the Bible as well as everything the Holy Spirit reveals as sin for us individually. Then, we must meditate on His Word day and night so that our thoughts and actions will cease to be tainted with the cares of this world and, instead, be in line with the character and consistency of Christ’s own thoughts and actions. When we no longer have to ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” because we think like Jesus and, therefore, automatically do what Jesus would do, then we will have achieved a oneness with Christ that produces freedom from fear, agitation, and moral conflict coupled with harmonious relationships with God, man, and self.

We don’t achieve spiritual success by simply praying for it every now and then. We achieve spiritual success by following our prayers with active effort to obtain and to retain the heart peace we so desire. If peace eludes you today, it’s because you:

1) Aren’t working hard enough to eradicate sin from your life, or

2) Aren’t working hard enough to transform your way of thinking into God’s way of thinking by meditating on His Word day and night, or

3) Both.

So, if you want God’s peace, it’s time to roll up your sleeves, quit being spiritually lazy, and get to work!

* Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Seminar

* Learn more about The E-Myth