Tag: Peace

Be Anxious For Nothing……

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou2 Comments

I am sitting in my living room right now, while my grandchildren play on the floor, and my son and daughter work in the kitchen preparing a birthday dinner for my husband.   I am writing, because anxious thoughts are pressing against me, due to the uncertain times we are all living in, and I find myself needing to focus my mind on the LORD.

Perhaps, you are finding yourself fighting anxious thoughts as well, if so, I hope these scriptures will help you focus your mind and calm your thoughts—I am hoping the same thing for myself.

Philippians 4:6   Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.

4:7  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.

4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix you thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

4:9  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.  Then the God of peace will be with you.

I frequently battle anxious thoughts so I frequently think about these verses.  I love that scripture encourages me to pray about everything!!!!   That means—God wants me to bring everything and anything to Him that I am concerned about–  Nothing is too small or too big.    And what will be the result of my prayer—the result is peace.  Peace.  Peace. 

For those of us dealing with anxiety, and sleepless nights—Peace sounds amazing!!   The Peace that God has to give us, exceeds anything we can understand.   I have experienced that peace from God when there was no reason to experience that peace. 

I experienced it when my son died, (I wrote about this in The Gift of Grace), I experienced this Peace when I was told I had to have surgery on my eye for a detached retina, (I wrote about this in—Yes, Jesus loves you).   These were a few dramatic occasions when I have supernaturally experienced God’s Peace and Presence.  I recount those times again, to remind myself that if God was with me then—– He is with me today.

Scripture goes on to tell us to Fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.  We are to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

There is a children’s song, and the words to it go, “Be careful little eyes, what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, for the Father up above is watching you with love, so be careful little eyes what you see.”

Just as we are careful with what our children see and hear—wanting to protect them and preserve their innocence—our Heavenly Father wants to protect our minds and preserve our holiness.   He knows that what we focus on will affect our emotions and our peace. 

Today, was a day of many sweet moments with our children and grandchildren.  It was so easy to think about things that were pure and lovely and right and admirable—all I had to do was look into one of my loved one’s faces and catch their smiles, and my mind and body were flooded with feel good endorphins. 

God knows what He is talking about, when He tells us how to have Peace!!

So, my friend, I pray that you and I will take His advice—and receive His Peace, Presence and Encouragement!!

Peace, Baby, Peace

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou7 Comments

Have you ever taken a ride on an airplane and looked down and everything seems so small? — Small houses, cars, buildings, trees.  I love looking down and seeing the world get small.  I feel such a peace when I am looking at life from that angle.  Why?  Because it reminds me that it is all a matter of perspective.

  Often, when I focus on a problem—the problem can seem so big, so huge, so unsolvable.  For example, in marriage, my husband and I often have differing opinions from one another.  That is to be expected, we are two different people, we had different backgrounds, he is from the East Coast, I am from the Mid-West, (I don’t have to explain any further than that—the cultural differences alone, explain most of our differences.)   There have been a few times in our marriage, where our differences were so extreme, that I wondered if they could be overcome. 

It’s all a matter of perspective.   It’s all in how I look at the situation.  Often, reading the Bible will help me find perspective.  I find God’s point of view—His eternal view, and that makes everything else seem small in comparison to His view, and I have that same sense of peace.

When I was in college, I began my relationship with the Lord.  One of the verses that I read over and over again was, Philippians 4:6,7:   Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

I heard a great talk by Josh McDowell, on this verse. The talk was about taking every concern to the Lord in prayer and the result will be—peace.  Not that I will necessarily have what I ask, but that when I put things in God’s hands, with an attitude of thankfulness and respect, God gives His peace.

Peace is a gift.  It is not being anxious but being calm.  It is realizing that “it”, (whatever “it” is) is all in God’s Hands, and He is motivated by love.  He can be trusted with the “it”.

Every time, I have lost someone I loved, I have been forced to look at God and look at that belief that He does love me.  He is in charge.  He can be trusted.   How do I deal with finding my way back to God when my heart is torn, battered and my soul is reeling?

I look at what I know—I know that Jesus did live, and He did die, and He did rise again.  (I am not going to go into all the apologetics of how I know this, but I will give you a link, so you can start doing research yourself into these topics.) Click here for apologetic videos.

I know that scripture is reliable and can be trusted.  Click here for a video about this.

I know prophesy in scripture has been fulfilled, showing me that God knows what is going to happen, and He is Sovereign, He has a plan, His will—will be done. Click here for video on fulfilled prophesies.

The Holy Spirit continues to speak in my heart, reassuring me that I am God’s child, that I am loved, that I belong.  (Romans 8:16)

There was a song that I learned when I was in college, (I was on summer break, working up north with the children of migrant workers, and attending a little tiny church—where this song was sung), the words to the song are:  “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand.”     I loved that song.  I would sing it, over and over again. Click here to listen to song.

That was a time in my life, when I was coming to the end of college, and my future was full of question marks.  This song, helped to remind me of God, the One Who holds my hand, and the One Who holds the future.  The song helped me to focus on God and He helped me to gain perspective and peace.

God holds your hand and He holds your future too.   God loves you with an everlasting love.  When we doubt that, our peace is destroyed, as it is difficult to trust and follow God if we doubt His love for us.  So, remember—all He has done to demonstrate His love to you, all the Evidence He has provided so you can know what you believe is true and Be at Peace and

 Be Encouraged!!