Explore the power of the peace of God and discover how it can apply to your life.
When I Opened My Heart
When Christian women trust in the Lord, they radiate beauty from within. Their countenance is full of light, and their heart says, “I completely trust in You, Lord, even though I don’t understand my circumstances.”
When we lack this ability to trust in the Lord, or, we chose not to trust in Him, we fail miserably, as I did recently, and the peace of God leaves our heart instantly.
When Thinking Got Me into Trouble
During the holiday season, my husband and I visited a relative’s house where I noticed their Christmas cards hanging on the wall. As I looked them over, I noticed they received a Christmas card from someone who hadn’t sent us a Christmas card. Hmmm, can you see where this is going? I was caught off guard by this because I considered myself a closer friend with the sender than the relative whom I was visiting.
At first, this rattled me a little bit, but I shrugged it off, until later during the ride home I vented my feelings to my husband. He didn’t think anything strange about it and wondered if they just ran out of Christmas cards. Guys are so practical.
But in my thinking and understanding, I was convinced there must’ve been some ill intent involved, and I became deeply hurt over the perceived offence. In fact, I struggled with this issue for days, even discussing my wounded heart with my daughter, and wondered how I was forgotten and what did I do to make this person not like me anymore? It seems petty, doesn’t it?
When I Was Snubbed
At that time, western New York experienced a severe weather storm and the whole city of Buffalo, NY was completely shut down for days. It just so happened that our mail gets routed through Buffalo before it ends up in our city which is many miles south of Buffalo. Can you see where this is going? Yeah, I thought so.
A few days after our visit to this relative’s house, all our backed-up mail was delivered and wouldn’t you know it, in the pile of mail was a Christmas card from the friend I thought had snubbed me. I was completely embarrassed and had to retract all the negative things I had said and discussed with my husband and my daughter.
When I Started to Think Upwards
Why did I go down such a negative route in my thinking without even considering other reasons that might be involved? I totally jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst, drawing upon my so-called years of wisdom and understanding of what might’ve happened. I immediately thought this person either didn’t like me or was offended at me somehow. You wouldn’t think this would be a trait of a long-standing Christian woman of 40+ years, but there I was, caught red-handed, with no trust in the Lord, and zero peace in my heart.
When I Learned My Lesson
Shortly after this incident, another situation reared its ugly head. I was sending text messages to someone I see on a regular basis, but they wouldn’t respond to any of my messages. This was strange to me, and I thought it was making things awkward between us. Why was this person not responding or telling me that they received my text messages? It was getting to the point where I wanted to ask this person if something was wrong, because honestly, I was hurt by their actions and a little embarrassed.
One day, I decided to call this person instead of texting them when I realized I had two different phone numbers for them in my phone. What?! Yup, I never updated their account on my phone even though they sent me their new cell phone number a while ago. Once I sent my text message to the new phone number, they responded within minutes. Oops. There I go again, jumping to conclusions. I thought for sure this person was being passive aggressive with me, you know, smiling at me in person, but snubbing me through text messages.
What is my problem rooted in? Does anyone else have these struggles? Frankly, I’m quite sick of my quick responses of jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst of people! Why can’t I be more practical? And think outside the box a bit? Like, maybe there are other reasons than the worst-case scenario?
My Lesson Was Learned
One of my favorite portions of Scripture is from Proverbs 3, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
As you can tell, I lean on my own understanding a lot, and it always gets me into trouble. Not only does this way of thinking get me down in the dumps fast, but it affects the way I can minister to others.
It was no coincidence that these two issues happened so closely together for me. I strongly believed the Lord was making a point of bringing my quick judgmental tendencies to the surface so they could be addressed and removed from my spirit.
I Found Rest At Last
The Lord wants to take us from “strength to strength,” perfecting His righteousness in us so we don’t have these emotional hang-ups and spiritual issues weighing us down and stealing our peace. Since these incidents have happened, I’ve practiced “speaking the truth in my heart” before imagining what may have happened. This is a very good habit for anyone to practice, and it’s been life for me.
The truth in these two situations is that these people are my friends, and they love me. They are good Christian people and would never try to hurt another person on purpose.
Another truth I should've embraced, is that I’m a child of God, and because I am familiar with Scripture, I should've used Scripture as a protection against falling into these emotional traps and the sin of judging others.
My Guarded Thoughts
Scripture gives us a list of “guards” or gateways we can place at the entrance of our thoughts to help us speak the truth in our heart and find peace. These guards are listed in Philippians 4:8-9, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”
If we think on these things listed above instead of the perceived “ills” of other people, or dwell on our imaginations, which are merely made-up stories, we will experience the peace that passes all understanding, and it will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
I Threw Negative Thought Out
Our enemy (Satan) is constantly trying to plant his suggestions, thoughts, and evil ideas into our minds so we can lose our peace. How can we protect ourselves against such onslaughts?
Scripture makes it very clear what we are to use the Word of God as a shield against such attacks. One way to ward off attacks of the enemy is by filtering our thoughts through the guards listed in Philippians 4:8-9, mentioned above. Another way we are to use Scripture as a defense is by casting all of our thoughts, imaginations, and ideas down and submitting them to the Lord for review.
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Corinthians 10:5.
The Peace of God Ruled in My Heart
I am so thankful the Lord provides answers and keys for all our issues in His holy word, and I'm thankful I'm a daughter of the King who appreciates what His holy word has to say! The test that comes to all of us is when we choose to apply those things we've learned, heard and received from His holy word, so we can experience the peace that passes understanding.
There is so much joy to be had, and peace to be given, when we turn to the Lord first and trust Him to help us understand matters! That’s why we can say, “I’m free to be a servant of the Lord,” because He can free us from issues of the heart that prevent us from going from “strength to strength” in the Lord, and becoming perfected in righteousness.
I Will Think on Things Above
We are told in the Bible to think upon things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of a good report if we want to find peace. Can I say this has been my habit? Yes, because I’ve learned my lesson!
What happens if we do what the Bible is telling us to do in 2 Corinthians and in Philippians? Philippians 4:9 says that if we think on these things like we’ve been told then we will experience the peace of God in our hearts.
Can you see yourself in the above mentioned scenarios? Perhaps, you too, have experienced situations that spiraled out of control in your mind? Maybe you are sick of making blunders and quick judgment calls and losing the peace of God?
Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us develop a habit of thinking things that are true, honest, and just, as it is written in Philippians 4:8-9. So we can be filled with peace and glorify God in all we say and do.
Let's Pray Together
Father in Heaven,
We earnestly come before You with this complex issue of our thinking. You know our thoughts even before we think them and You know what we are going to say even before we speak. Please help us heed Your holy word and apply those guards to our thought process so we can protect our heart from hurts, wounds, and unnecessary depression.
Our human tendencies are to think badly of people, but we want this to change in our life. We no longer wish to be governed by our imaginations, so we are asking You to put a guard at the gateway of our mind, and prompt us to stop, and consider what we are dwelling on before we go downwards in our thinking.
Help us have the will power to cast imaginations down, and any thought that goes against the knowledge of heaven.
Help us to obey Your word to its fullest intent, so we may experience the fullness of joy in this lifetime and in the life to follow.
In Your precious name,
Amen.
Blessings ~
Angie
The Founder
of My Sun & Shade Ministries
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