“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.” – Philippians 4:7
Think for a moment about all the synonyms for the word peace.
Calm.
Stillness.
Tranquility.
Security.
Safety.
Quiet.
Freedom from disturbance.
How many of those words describe your experience with infertility? I’m guessing not many, if any! In fact, our experience can quite often be the exact opposite of peaceful.
In the middle of all the craziness, Scripture shows us how to find peace.
Isaiah 26:3 tells us that our thoughts hold the key to peace.
“You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
By fixing our thoughts on God, we allow His peace to come on us.
Philippians 4:8-9 also encourages us to seek peace by focusing our thoughts not on the negative, but on the good, pure things we know to be true.
“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.”
Focusing our thoughts on God is not easy- especially in the middle of difficult circumstances. It’s like starting a new workout. Our muscles will ache, we’ll be fatigued, and we’ll want to take the easy way out by just quitting. But if we stick with the discipline of focusing on what we know to be true about God (He is good, He is loving, He has a plan), our spiritual muscles will gradually get stronger and focusing our thoughts on Him will get easier.
As you pray for peace today, ask God to help you focus your thoughts on Him during difficult times.
************
Read all 31 days here
************
31 Days of Prayer is available as an a Kindle eBook, a PDF eBook, and as a printed workbook. All options come with all 31 devotionals plus additional prayer journal pages that are exclusive to the book. Each journal page includes journaling prompts and more Scripture for further study. You’ll also receive access to more content that isn’t available on the blog- like booklists, playlists, Scripture memorization cards, and computer wallpaper downloads. You can purchase the workbook and Kindle book from Amazon, and the printable PDF is available here.
*First photo courtesy of UnSplash / David Marcu. Second photo courtesy of Deposit Photos.
Yes- so true. I might have to write this on my walls “He is good, He is loving, He has a plan….He is good, He is loving, He has a plan”. Thanks for this reminder!
Farin
http://farinvazquez.blogspot.com
Oh how true it is when we keep our focus on God and not our circumstances do we find that peace abounds. I know that I have rough days but since making the choice to consciously redirect my thoughts over two years ago, I find that those rough days are not as frequent. I also notice that when I do have the rough days, it’s because i have let my mind and mouth go to the negative. There is so much power in our thoughts…and of course our thoughts become our words so there is huge power in that as well.
Thank you so much for this reminder! You are awesome! xo