Guard Your Hearts and Your Minds

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We certainly must do what we can to guard our hearts and our minds. And going to God in prayer in every situation looks like the first line of defense. There are times that seeking God has fallen off my “to do” list. I get overwhelmed with the tasks ahead of me and I “save time” by plowing ahead — ungirded, disconnected, and underprepared.

We are in the world and we can fall prey to worldly things so easily. As we present every situation to God, He uses that time to send us His peace and protection. That peace of God can flood our conversations, our schedule, our tasks … our day.

Let’s do a five day challenge this week. 5 days of intentional prayer time. If you are in, let me know and send me one of your top verses via email to vospower6@hotmail.com. For the next 4 days we will start each day with a PrayerPoint.

For today, take time to present your day to God. What is on the calendar? How do you feel about what is on the calendar? Think of the mundane tasks as well as the overwhelming ones. Walk through your commitments, but don’t forget to pray for those gaps. Is there some space for God’s agenda? Are we booking each day so solidly that there is no room to move and be flexible?

I’ll see you tomorrow!

And the Peace of God…

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding...

Have you ever visited with someone who, by any standard, has gone through some incredible suffering?

It often goes one of two ways — they are completely stuck in a cycle of despair and anger and overwhelm for years or they are in a place of peace. They know they cannot control others and the things they do, they know they can only control their response. And they trust God will work out the ugly details for His good.

I am always refreshed and amazed at the peace of God…it is unexplainable. To interact with someone who has God’s true peace is such an encouragement.

Present Your Requests

Present your requests to God….

Sometimes it is easy to get so caught up in a situation or the need that I simply forget to present my requests to God. Those prayers and petitions are such a vital part of our relationship.

Yes, He knows our needs before we ask. He knows our movements, our stressors, our joys, and our pains and He delights when we bring them all to Him.

God wants us to bring it all to Him — the seemingly trivial as well as those larger situations. I think the the act of presenting our requests to God reminds us where we are in this Universe — who He is — and who we are not. It’s a good reminder of our positioning. Believe it or not, we are not in control of everything. Our lives are not our own and we are here for a larger purpose. And yet, in our day-to-day God can accomplish those purposes with and through us — even when we are unaware of it all.

That brings me peace. I don’t have to know how it all works. In fact, I don’t have to know how any of it works. I am trusting God to work out the details.

By Prayer and Petition

With Thanksgiving…..

While God actually knows what is on my heart, it is so good for me to think about it and verbally express it. Putting words to my thoughts, emotions, needs, and concerns is so good for me. And even more beneficial is handing them over to God with thanksgiving…

I know He is working out the details. Can I trust Him with the details?

Quite honestly, I have be faltering in this area lately. Of course, when I take my eyes off of Jesus, it is so much easier to stumble or get off course. Presenting my prayers and petitions to God keeps my focus on Him. The thanksgiving part is an indicator that I am trusting Him for the outcome and that it will serve His purposes.

I have so much to be thankful for!

Philippians 4:6-7

I have always loved this verse!

During May, I plan to explore different sections of these two verses and I encourage you to mull them over and make a deeper connection with them too! For now, commit it to memory if it isn’t already tucked away. If you have been reading PrayerPoints for any length of time, you know that music is very important to me. So, of course, I have to point out a song for this Psalm.

From the Start…

He was with God in the beginning.³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5

What a comfort for me to know I don’t have to figure it all out. God’s knowledge of me and my circumstances as well as how my life entwines with the lives of those around me and His greater purpose and plan is incomprehensible.

My faith is an amazing gift that supersedes all others. I don’t have to be able to explain it all or understand it all. I can simply trust.

For as long as I can remember, satan has been actively attempting to destroy my faith. Many times he stooped so low. And his favorite tactic has always involved the ugliness within a church body or ugly behavior by a church “representatives”.

Satan loves to niggle at our faith. His goal is to cause us to doubt God’s goodness and to get us to say, “God, did you really say______________?” The devil wants nothing more than to interrupt our relationship with God and cause us to set it aside and ignore it or outright reject it. Have you noticed satan creating “faith blockers” in your life through the years? In my life, it is so common it is almost comical — except that it isn’t funny at all. I am so thankful God shielded my faith even in the midst of ugly situations.

God’s gift of faith has sustained me through many difficulties and will continue to do so until I meet him face-to-face. I may not be able to explain it all, but it is absolutely real.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

The Shadows

Have you ever been afraid in the dark? Have shadows played “tricks” on you? Did you ever think you saw something and then realized it was just a shadow of something small that looked scary or intimidating?

Oh, the complications that come from the darkness! Whether it is due to fear, shame, or embarrassment, when a portion of your life is in the dark, the results seem to be similar. The darkness distorts how we see our situation and it also complicates how our situation can be viewed by others. Those who are in a position to help can’t exactly see where they can help.

Darkness can shut people out and that isolation only complicates our situation.

Allowing God’s love, light, forgiveness, and redemption into our dark space can bring healing.

Let the Son shine in!

Darkness

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5

Those things that are hidden in the darkness can cause a lot of problems. They might be tucked away in a corner and it might feel as though it has been forgotten but satan loves to use it as a piece of “I told you so,” or “You’ll never change,” or “That was unforgivable.”

Those lies … they fester in the dark …. they linger and take root like a weed. And, worst of all, they seem to multiply and become more and more oppressive. When we insist there is no right or wrong — no Light or dark — then we find that we have to defend our position.

Even when we are dead wrong…

The way to fix any of it is to allow the Light of the world to flood in and bring His Love and Life — the forgiveness, the perspective, the peace that can only come from Jesus. It takes humility as well as knowing our place in the Universe. This allowing comes when we recognize that God is God and we are not.

May God’s love and light flood every corner of our lives and bring forth forgiveness and restoration.

In the beginning…

Let’s back it up to the beginning and take a look at what was. How it all began.

The Word. The Light. The Life.

And let’s focus on the Light. To be honest, I am feeling the darkness, and it is a bit overwhelming. So, I need to make sure The Light is around me.

The Light helps my perspective…. it helps my vision….. it helps my processing. It helps me see what is true and good. And it is so amazing what a little bit of light can do in a dark place!

I am holding onto this promise:

“And the darkness has not overcome it.”

Received from God

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

Anything good you have received from me is a gift from God through me. I am an imperfect person, fraught with issues, but sometimes, there is this moment when something passes from God to you and God allowed me to be the message bringer.

Since the beginning, God has used a lot of ways to communicate with us. This list is not exhaustive. It is only meant to jog your memory. God can use all things — even regular people — to share His message:

Jesus
The Holy Spirit
His Holy Word
donkeys
dreams
servants
kings
whispers
a pillar of cloud
a pillar of fire
prophets
a burning bush

God is in the business of sharing His message from our messes so sharing what you have received from God is so important! Remember, as the messenger, we are not the focus. God’s life-saving message is!