Devotions for 11-6-24
Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable… think about these things.”
Peace is something we all desire. Unfortunately, peace is also something that is often elusive and hard to find. You can see how hard it is to have real peace in our hearts by how many people take prescription medications to take away their anxiety and how many others take other substances in order to try and find that inner peace as well. For the most part, we are not a people filled with great inner peace and tranquility.
And how could we be? With all the problems that go on in this world, how could we be people filled with peace? There are wars going on, threats of wars in many other places, crime is all over the news we watch or listen to, there are all sorts of peace stealing issues in our personal lives and in the world around us. Peace is a precious, and often rare thing.
What makes that worse is that often our own minds make inner peace difficult or impossible for us to have. We hear about someone having some sort of trouble and we think it could happen to us. We hear of a disease and think we might have symptoms of it and worry about our health. We hear about crime happening somewhere else and believe it will happen to us. Our own thinking steals our peace away, our worry rips it out of our heart.
So, God in His word gives us a remedy for some of that and it is to have our minds think, or dwell as some translations put it, on things that are good. Our verse lists several things that we are to let our mind think about and they are; things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy.
Sounds sort of like a Hallmark movie doesn’t it! But it isn’t. God’s word is telling us that if we want to have more peace in our hearts and lives that we need to take our eyes and minds off the things that scare us, unsettle us, and cause us to worry. God knows there are a lot of things that steal away our peace and He is saying, “Don’t focus on the negative. There will always be plenty of negative things, but you don’t need to constantly fill your mind with them. Fill your mind and heart with things that are good instead.”
What is more, what God is also trying to show us is that if we look for them, there really are plenty of good things out there to fill our minds and hearts with. Look at the beauty God created that is all around us in His creation. And if you haven’t been in His creation for a while, take a day trip to take in His beauty. Think of people who make you smile and if you haven’t been with them lately, call them up and take them out for lunch. How about the light that a tiny baby brings into your heart, and if you haven’t held one for a long time, go visit a relative or friend who has a baby and give them a couple hours to get away; you need the cuddle time with their baby, and they need time to be an adult. In other words, invest in peace and joy.
If the world is stealing your peace or joy, change what you are thinking on, what you are spending your time with, and what is dwelling in your heart. Start putting the things that bring peace to you back into your life and stop looking at, thinking about and otherwise investing your time in the things that cause you to worry and lose your peace.
We can all keep focusing on the negative, the things that rob us of our peace, or we can decide to invest in our own spiritual and emotional well-being and do what God shows us is the antidote to worry and anxiety and that is to put more of the things that bring us peace back into our daily lives.
What can you do to invest in your own inner peace? What can you do to help someone else invest in theirs? “Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Vs 9.
Pastor Gary
Leave a Reply