SCRIPTURE: Philippians 4:7 NIV And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
THOUGHT: Yesterday I wrote from the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and today the text comes from that letter’s end. Paul has described his own unstoppable faith and now he asks the same of his brothers and sisters in Philippi. His key is finding joy in the fact that God is able to take care of whatever concerns us. That is a position of faith: borrowing joy from the future as we rest in confidence. Paul’s encouragement is to live into joy by praying about, and giving thanks for everything, entrusting it all to God’s hands, refusing to be anxious.
If we go seeking peace, it’s elusive. But if we go seeking to trust, something we can’t explain begins to happen. Our eyes go from all the things we’re afraid of, to all the things God has promised. From all those well-worn groves of feeling out-of-control to acknowledgement that someone bigger than us is near (vs. 4).
SONG: (Don’t laugh at me!) God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK72_–ZsM4
PRAYER: Oh Lord, we teach our children to not be afraid of the dark, but then fail to learn the lesson ourselves. Help us live into joy rather than fear by trusting it all to you. Sleeping peacefully in a night of turbulence and storm, when even the furniture seems to move.
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