Word Of The Day: Peace

A lot of things are pretty messed up right now. Understatement of the year, I know. The sad truth is that things have been pretty messed up for a very long time. For about as long as there have people on the earth there have been people messing stuff up. If you take a moment to just think about all the craziness going on in the world, it doesn't take too long before you start to see how truly bad things are. Right? Well, that depends on what you were thinking about. This verse in Philippians 4 is presented in the context of a worrisome situation. In fact, just a couple of verses earlier we read the instructions to be "anxious for nothing" but instead to present our needs to God with thankfulness. This reminds me of a conversation I was having with my oldest son a week or so ago. He was repeatedly having trouble with having a bad attitude and storming off when e couldn't have his way. The thing is, he is normally a very loving, compassionate 6 year old but he kept letting these moments get the better of him. He wanted to know if there was a way he could learn to have a better handle on his attitude. I told him the secret weapon is thankfulness. It's very hard to have a bad attitude when you are thankful, right. So the obvious follow up was, "What do I have to be thankful for?" I'll ask you the same; what do you have to be thankful for? A lot or a little. It completely depends on what you are thinking about. If you choose to focus on your problems and only see all the bad in the world, it will be difficult to have a thankful heart. When you choose to shift your focus to God, His awesome presence, His glory revealed in creation all around us, His ever present help in times of need, His gentle prodding and even firm correction, then you will instead be asking, "What could I not be thankful for?" The beauty in this is the peace that follows once we set our eyes on Him. As Paul puts it in verse 7, it is a "peace that surpasses all understanding", a peace that guards us and keeps us as we live in Christ. This kind of peace is a peace that doesn't make sense to anyone else and it is exactly that kind of peace that the world needs to see bringing glory to God! #WordOfTheDay #DailyWord #Peace

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