Receiving More Peace from God

When we fail to deal with negative emotions as they arise, they affect our peace, joy, serenity, harmony, and love that we feel and reflect to the world around us.

Once we take the time to inventory our body, soul and spirit and to identify any pain, spiritual cautions or negative emotions, we can take action to clear the adverse effects they have on our body, soul and spirit.

We often perceive the body language of another person or an event we view in life from our own perspective, colored by the trauma of our past. It is healthy to pray about one emotion or thought at a time.

We inquire of God if the thought is absolutely true or a lie from our flesh, the world or the devil. Is it rooted in some comment or event from our past that pierced our soul like a splinter that gets infected and troubles us?

We search the situation and discover how that thought is affecting our reaction to each moment of our life. What do we believe about that thought? Is it disparaging and does it cause depression, anxiety or anger?

Journaling our thoughts at this point is very helpful. It gives us a reference for the future and helps us to release the pent up negative emotions tying us in knots.

What do these thoughts make us feel about our self? Do they foster criticism and self-abuse? Do we harbor unforgiveness toward our self or others in our life over both the current issues and any events from the past?

Once we take that negative thought and emotion to God, we can hear His truth about the situation. How He feels about us is more real, applicable and truthful than our perception of the event.

Prayer:

Father God, once we take our negative thoughts to You, one at a time, we perceive the situation from Your perception rather than from our own faulty, human perspective. We experience the fruit of Your Spirit flooding our soul, and replacing our negative thoughts with Your Truth. You taught us that this ends much of the emotional pain that plagues our soul, which also heals our body and spirit.

Help us to accept our self and others exactly as we are and without expecting change. Then we will eventually stop noticing these inconsistencies or irritating quirks and painful habits just as we acclimate our self to the noise of a busy highway or the routine train rattling the rails and blowing its horn as it makes its trips through our town.

Thought for the Day:

We do not need to use additional boundaries and limitations in order to attempt to control our self, others and life in general - this is human effort, which only serves to compound our anxiety and anger; it is only as we surrender to God's will for our life, rejoice in each moment and refrain from borrowing regret over the past or trouble from tomorrow that we can walk in God's continual peace, love and joy.

Increasing Devotion

Once we come to a heart-felt understanding of eternity, brought to us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God's peace is able to flood our soul with joy that is beyond human description or logic.

Moment by moment, He reveals to us His purpose for our life on this earth, and it looks vastly different than what we ever imagined our life would be like. He shows us His divine plan that He assigned to us before we were even in our mother's womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

We stop grasping at the things of this world, and instead we do the works, which He calls us to do. We bring Him glory and honor through our obedience, and we thrill His heart, because this proves to Him that we love Him (John 14:15).

Our level of devotion to things of the Spirit rises more each moment of every day. We accomplish His will for us in heart-felt worship and adoration.

Our daily tasks, our ministry to our community and church family, and our times of prayer and Bible study increase as our love for God increases. We stand strong against Satan's lies and deception (1 Timothy 4:1).

Our every thought, word and action ring out in praise to our King and Savior (2 Corinthians 10:5). We learn to patiently wait on God's timing; and we trust Him to work out every area of our life to teach us to rely on Him, rather than to attempt to control our life with human resources.

This also prevents us from surrendering to Satan's attempts to sabotage our walk with the Lord. As we examine our thoughts under the magnifying glass of God's Word, we walk freely from the devil's lying agenda to control our life, and live in God's joy and peace instead.

Prayer:

Father God, unbelief separates human beings from You for eternity. You make it clear in Your Word that it is our faith in Christ that opens Heavens portal to us, and our unbelief which prevents us from finding that eye of a needle that will gain us entrance into Your presence now and for eternity (John 3:16-18).

As authentic Believers, our intimate bond with You is broken only by our propensity to sin. However, if we walk in one accord with Your direction, wisdom and love, we will never fulfill the lusts of our flesh again (Galatians 5:16, 25). We eventually walk by Your Spirit as a matter of course for every moment of our day.

Thought for the Day:

By God’s abounding grace it is possible to live one minute without sinning; if one minute, then we can live one whole day for the glory of God; if one day, then one lifetime can be lived through the perfection of Jesus Christ, who lives His life in and through us, once we dare to get out of His way.

Navigating Our Circumstances

Would you like to have your life changed? As an authentic Christian, the Holy Spirit is present to fill us with all the fullness of God, and this is the key to walking in His serenity each moment of our day, regardless of our circumstances.

What is it in your life that is causing you a problem right now?  Can you do something about it? Then, do it! If not, then change your focus and completely give the problem to God.

We empty ourselves of our inner clutter by journaling until we are totally void of our self and our issues, and totally filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19, Amplified).

He gives us wisdom and a vision for His plan for our life. Often, this terrifies us so much, that we fall on our face before Him, and pray that He will give us the fortitude and persistence to accomplish His will.

His Holy Spirit strengthens us and leads us each moment of the day as God's plan unfolds before us. We draw closer to Christ in us and completely trust Him with our circumstances.

Spending time in continuous prayer all day, we send our roots deeper into the soil of God's marvelous love. As His children, we experience and understand the four dimensions of His love for us, and we take heart through our trials (Ephesians 3:18).

God completely fills every fiber of our being with Himself, and we learn to rely on Him, trust in Him and walk by the direction of His Holy Spirit every moment of our day (Ephesians 3:19).

As we simplify our life by getting rid of the inner clutter first by journaling, then having a garage sale to rid our home and office of all unnecessary clutter; and then abiding in the Vine, we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us moment-by-moment throughout the day and night. 

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to continually dwell with Your Spirit who abides within us in the inner sanctum of our spirit. As we walk in Your Spirit's direction, we observe as You use us for Your purposes all through the day, and we enjoy the fruit of our labor and success in our endeavors. Remind us to relinquish our anxiety to You, and not to pay attention to Satan's worries and distractions, which attempt to monopolize our time and energy.

We do not want to run through life at full speed all day and then fall into an exhausted sleep all night. We do not want our mind to fill with distracted clutter all day so that we get pulled in too many directions at one time without Your goals and purpose. We want to be so Spirit-led in body, soul and spirit that You can use us to build Your Kingdom on this earth through one heart at a time.

Thought for the Day:

God’s voice cannot compete with our distractions or penetrate our awareness, because the clutter in our life is too overpowering and we are not listening for His voice; however, the fulfilled life, guided by the Spirit of God, takes time and effort and commitment, but our thoughts which are totally Spirit led, when acted upon, will bear fruit for the kingdom of God.

Journey to Joy

On my personal spiritual journey, I experienced exciting hilltops and deep, dark valleys. Both require immense determination, because of the uphill battles to reach the mountain tops, and the scary shadows of the valleys.

My melancholy personality often wars against the joy of the Spirit within me. I feel so deeply sad in my soul about so much in life…suffering, the unsaved, wars, hunger, threatening weather and various other negative aspects of life on our planet.

"Mourning is the seed," as Basil says, "out of which the flower of spiritual joy grows." God promised to comfort those who mourn (Isaiah 57:18). Therefore, there is no reason that the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my spirit cannot override this natural penchant in my personality for melancholia.

As I put my hope in God, and I praise Him as my Savior and my God, the joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It flows out of my spirit, infiltrates my soul and shines out through my countenance (Psalm 43:5). 

Joy follows forgiveness and gratitude. As we praise the Lord for His forgiveness and show Him our gratitude for all He did, is doing and will do for us, His joy can flow through us without the restrictions and boundaries of dependence on this world.

God sheds His light on His Saints and His joy in the heart of the upright. We can rejoice in the Lord, if we walk in Christ's righteousness, and continually praise His holy name (Psalm 97:11-12).

Prayer:

Father God, this is the day that You have made; help us to rejoice and to find joy in it regardless of our circumstances (Psalm 118:24). Heartache crushes our spirit and drains our body, soul and spirit of its joy. It may take us years to grieve the losses we have in this lifetime; and some we may never fully recover from, unless we place our full trust in You.

Your presence in our life gives us a happy heart, which results in a cheerful face (Proverbs 15:13). You exalt our head above our enemies that often surround us, and we must give You the sacrifice of shouts of joy, especially when we do not feel like it (Psalm 27:8); because You are our Rock and our everlasting Savior.

Thought for the Day:

Joy comes when we come to love God more than anything this world has to offer; joy in our soul rises from our personal sense of God's love and favor. - Psalm 118:24

Trusting God

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Trusting God with each moment of our day, and walking by the direction of His Holy Spirit in the center of His rest and perfect will for our life is the most freeing priority we can have in this imperfect world.

We never drown in our weekly agenda, we accomplish the duties at home and in our vocation, we have time to play with our family and friends, and we are more productive than we ever were when we planned our own schedule.

Of course, our week always begins with Sunday worship with our church family, and giving our tithes and offerings to the work of the Lord. This ensures that God will bless us in body, soul, spirit and finances.

Many of the Saints of God, chronicled about in God's Word, followed this same procedure. Enoch and Elijah were even translated from earth to heaven without experiencing the death process, because they followed this formula in their lives.

God stopped during the creation procedure to rest on the seventh day and to give us an example of the importance of living in His rest. He even evaluated His accomplishments of the prior week and pronounced that He did an awesome job with creation.

We too can encourage our self with positive reinforcement and encouragement. God will even send us individuals throughout our lifetime that will verbally affirm our achievements.

Taking continual inventories of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health throughout our day will also ensure that we can walk in God's rest for each moment of it.

Dealing with negative emotions as they arise through journaling, prayer or confronting the bothersome issues with God's wisdom will keep us in God's perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

Prayer:
Father God, we often fall short of the target of Your glory in our life. We lean too much on our own human understanding and fail to seek Your wisdom and Spirit's guidance for each moment of our day. Remind us not to allow negative emotions to build up in our soul, so that resentment, bitterness, burnout, depression, anxiety, anger, etc. will not dictate our thoughts, words and actions.

We want to follow Jesus' example and do only that which You direct our steps to say and do (John 5:19-24; Proverbs 3:5-6). Teach us to follow Your pre-ordained plan for our life (Ephesians 2:10). We want to be Your good and faithful servants and to bring You all of the praise, honor and glory that is due to Your name.

Thought for the Day:

Deep breathing brings life and health to our body, soul and spirit; we breathe in God's peace and we breathe out the negative emotions, which attach themselves to our soul as we tramp through the mire of this world.

A Good Marriage - Delighting in One Another

Caring marriage partners affirm one another's concerns, take responsibility for their own actions and attitudes rather than make excuses for their failings, apologize when they are grouchy or rude, keep their promises and delight in one another.

They cherish each other and are considerate of each other's feelings and needs along with their own. They make time for each other every day so they can listen and communicate their feelings and disappointments, and rejoice together in their accomplishments and blessings.

Caring couples are not afraid to share their honest feelings with one another in love, knowing that both of them are more than willing to find a third option rather than to insist on their own way. This way no one loses, and both partners feel loved and validated.

Many of us are unaware that dysfunction, from our past relationships from birth forward, may be causing issues in our marriage. Once we face our old wounds, influences, defense mechanisms and who we really are deep within, we can better communicate these facts to one another.

This not only improves our marriage, but our own life and attitude as well. We find healing from God for past trauma and establish new habits that allow us to feel more useful, understood and unconditionally loved by God, our self and each other.

The more we practice these lifestyle changes, the more routine they become and the easier they are to continue. Working together on improving our outlook on life allows us to support each other in our endeavors.

Including our partner in our process of change, allows him/her to enjoy a more intimate relationship with us and gives them more of a valuable part of our life.

Prayer:

Father God, give us more empathy and compassion for our mate and the road on which they are traveling through life. We are their partner on this same road. Yoking up together with each other, as well as with You, allows us to share our burdens, which makes them lighter. Help us to remain positive as we make needed changes in our life that will make us better individuals and a better couple.

Use us as examples of what it means to live a Godly life and to show that putting You first will ensure a happier marriage and lifestyle. We run into the shadow of Your wings during troubled times; and we rejoice that You are our God and Savior in good times as well as during moments of trauma.

Thought for the Day:

When we disappoint one another the most, it means that we have more of a need for each other than ever before; as we draw close during times of conflict, we frustrate the devil's plans to drive the wedge of divorce between the two of us.

God's Light and Living Water

God's presence in our life not only affects our spirit, but also our body and soul - our thoughts, emotions and choices (Psalm 34:5). God convicts us of sin, but Satan and his emissaries shame us.

When we heed the devil's lies about us, we also fall into the trap of shaming our self. The constant negative feelings, bombarding our soul from within us, is as devastating as those coming from other people outside of us.

Some of us fall into a deep pit of depression, because when we feel negatively toward our self, life seems hopeless and that we are helpless to effect changes to improve the quality of our life.

As we change our focus from our self, and plant it squarely on Christ in us, our whole countenance changes. He reveals His secrets to our soul and encourages us with His love.

God teaches us that we are the light set on a hill and that we draw people to the Christ in us. He gives us His living water and people are refreshed by drinking at the well of this living water flowing freely from within us (Matthew 5:14-16). 

Loving the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37), fortifies us for the onslaught of condemnation heaped on us by the world around us and even from self-recrimination.

Jesus is our life and our delight (Colossians 3:4). Nothing will ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39). We honor, adore, appreciate and serve Him with every fiber of our being.

Prayer:
Father God, Creator of both heaven and earth, You sent Jesus as our Savior, Advocate and Redeemer. You made us co-heirs with Him to Your Kingdom and You love us with an everlasting love (Romans 8:17; Jeremiah 31:3). We are the apple of Your eye.

We need not entertain shame in any shape or form or from any source, even from within our self (Romans 8:1-2). Your awesome nature is beyond our thoughts and Your provision is beyond our worries and difficulties.

Thought for the Day:

Pride and rebellion stop the flow of God's love to our soul - this happens when we insist on living life our own way; when we love the Lord, God leads us moment by moment and showers us with His peace, love, joy, righteousness and patience (Psalm 31:23).