Some of the
most powerful verses are those that grabbed hold of our hearts and minds when
we were young. I heard a man quote some
verses and shared how his pastor shared those specific verses almost every
Sunday at their church. Those verses
have become something that man holds on to tightly almost every day.
I have some
verses that are much the same, and today I want to share them with you. In fact I will step a little further with
some stories and insight.
Before I
share, here are the verses. Please read
through them a few times. You might even
want to look at them in another translation of the Bible. Often I find that reading verses slowly and
several times I gain much understanding.
Further, when I take a look at different translations I gain even more.
Read on…
Don’t worry
about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and
thank him for all he has done. 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. 8 And now, dear 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 worthy of praise. 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.
The first two verses are the
prime pieces of insight and support that God has graciously brought in to my
life for several years. On many of these
occasions these verses brought me to places I could not have gone on my own.
Yet the place that stands
out is when I first met Julie and we began a relationship. I believe these were promises from God to let
Him lead. Trusting God is not always
easy. Being patient is not always easy
either.
Since that time these
phrases, concepts and truths have been proven strong time and time again. They ring true and are meant to be lived by.
Don’t worry.
Pray about everything.
Thank God for all.
Then you will experience peace.
Each of those facts take us
to new levels with God. Worry pushes out
faith. Prayer builds faith and pushes
out worry. Peace is the result. I need that peace in my life as you do too!
The next verse is one I
remember learning when our youth group in the mid 1980’s were discipled by our
youth minister, Phil Dietz. What we
learned has been a great foundation that God built in our lives that leads to
greater days and blessings today.
Colossians 3:2 says we are
to choose what we think about, choose what enters our minds and what we think
about for a long time. Often we need a
little guidance to help us know what to think about and what to allow in to our
lives. We might think it is easy to
figure out, but we miss the simplest of things because our minds and activities
have us going in other directions.
To choose to think about
things that honor God our lives will begin to honor God even more. It is much like the first two verses. Choosing not to worry and to pray leads to
great peace. Choosing to think on high
character and to act upon what we think about leads to even more confidence and
peace.
We are told to fix our
thoughts. Choose what you think about. Put away the wrong things and put in place
the right things. Think on them for a
long period of time…
True.
Honorable. Right. Pure.
Lovely. Admirable. Anything worthy of praise.
Each of those honor God, and
if you are following this lead, you want to honor God as I do. Nothing honors God more than following His
example, believing what He says and doing what He says we are to do. Again, worry pushes out faith while great
faith pushes our worry and fear.
Paul, the author of these
verses, says we are to put in to practice what we have heard from God and seen
from Him. See the outcome once again.
The outcome is peace. Loads of real peace is ours as we follow His guidance.
It is my desire and my
prayer that we allow God to build our faith and enjoy His incredible peace!
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