Tag: peace

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SERENITY

In The Serenity Prayer column each month we are dissecting this well-known prayer phrase by phrase and applying it to our life today. These posts will be published the first Friday of each month in 2019.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…

serenity:  a state or quality of being serene, calm, tranquil, peaceful; having an inner calm in the midst of the ups and downs of life; involves learning to be content with the things in our life that can’t be changed. (Serenity’s opposite is agitation.)

Human beings aren’t naturally serene creatures. We don’t have to be taught agitation. It seems to come with the inner selfishness which is built into our nature. I certainly lean more towards agitation with most things in life. That’s why we need God’s help!

Our lack of peace is directly related to our thought life, worry and ingratitude. The Apostle Paul teaches this in his letter to the Phillipians:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 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. Now brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worth of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.              ~ Phillipians 4:6-9

It’s to us to decide what we’re going to think about. No one can control our thoughts but us. When we look for good we will usually find it. The opposite is also true.

Stressing over situations and people that we can’t change only makes more stress. If we can settle into life as it is, finding a way to be content, we can trust God will work all the good and bad for our good.

Let’s lean into God and put Paul’s teaching into practice. Then the peace of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will put a guard over our hearts and minds, and ultimately our life.

Take a few minutes to contemplate Christ’s peace with this beautiful worship song by Bethel Music.

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Focus on Delight

Most people I know today are going through some sort of struggle; whether it is financial difficulties brought on by the sagging economy or disharmony with family or loved ones. My family is no different. Like many others we are pressing through yet another job transition; depending on the Lord everyday to provide our basic needs.

I recently attended a women’s retreat where the speaker quoted Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” She went on to explain that delight in the original Hebrew means “to be soft or pliable.” I was struck by that definition; not what we normally think of when we hear the word delight. This got me pondering…

I remembered in February I posted a column titled Moldable Clay where I asked the question, “How do we stay moldable in our Father’s hands?” I can honestly say now I have the answer — We stay moldable when we delight ourselves in Him. But how can we actually do that? How do we delight ourselves in the Lord?

Noah Webster’s New International Dictionary defines delight: A high degree of gratification of mind; a state of pleasurable feeling; lively pleasure; extreme satisfaction; joy; to have or take great delight or pleasure; to be greatly pleased or rejoiced.

To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in their presence. This only happens when we know that person well and to do that we must spend time with them. To find delight in the Lord, we must spend time with Him, purposely, actively seeking Him and the pleasure that can only be found in His presence.

For me that also means even in hard times, looking past the circumstances to see God’s hand and to rest there knowing He loves me so much that He will take care of me no matter what. Like a little child who giggles as their mommy or daddy holds them. They’re just so happy to be in their arms, safe and secure, needing nothing.

What’s interesting for me is the round about circle this process has taken me… It started with a deep desire to keep my heart from getting hardened again, which caused me to ask God to help me to stay moldable… then I find the answer to staying moldable is to find delight in His presence which will in turn keep me soft and pliable in His hands. God is so good! He truly knows our hearts desire and will help us find the way to bring it about.

Let’s take our focus off all the problems and find that childlike delight in our Father’s arms today. Put on some peaceful worship music… sit back or lie on the floor… experience the joy of His presence… rest… be content to just be with Him. He will meet you there.