Today’s Scripture: Philippians 4:6-9
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 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.
8 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.
Today’s Devotional
I hate the 4:45 walk-up call. I’m not talking about having to get up early for an appointment or something else. I’m talking about when your mind wakes you up at 4:45 and decides to take you on a walk through your worst worries and anxieties. All you want to do is get maybe an hour more sleep. But your brain has other ideas.
And so you lay there running things over and over in your mind, thinking that you’re having a heart attack but knowing that it’s just a panic attack. And you suddenly realize that you’re not going back to sleep. Of course, this has never happened to me (he said full of sarcasm).
The truth is, we are worriers. Some of us more than others, to be sure. But we all have the ability to either relive events or pre-live events. This means we can immerse our thoughts in past events that we worry about – or in future events that we worry about. And for some reason it’s a lot easier to get there at 4:45 am.
I remember a night like this once when I was just eaten up with something that had happened. I kept going over and over the event in my head. I was worrying about what I said, how I had acted and what the consequences were going to be going forward. My mind was creating a list of scenarios – each one of the worse than the previous. Finally in a burst of frustration I cried out in my head “Holy Spirit, help.” And then I prayed it again. “Holy Spirit, help.” I did not pray for the situation or for wisdom or even for sleep. I just prayed “Holy, Spirit, help” over and over again. To be honest, that’s all I could pray.
I woke up two hours later.
What had happened? Exactly what Paul said would happen if we don’t worry and instead pray – “God’s peace will guard your hearts and minds”. My heart and mind was guarded by peace and when our hearts and minds are at peace – sleep is a lot easier!
I wish I were the type of person who has completely learned this lesson already. But I keep having to learn it – over and over. Maybe you do too. That’s OK. I don’t think God gets tired of us coming to him with worries. So keep praying about everything – worrying about nothing – and looking out for the peace that will guard your hearts and minds.
Today’s Prayer
Holy Spirit, help. When we are filled with worry – help. When we are overcome with anxiety – help. When we are stuck in the past or immersed in the future – help. Bring us your peace.
Amen
This Week’s Immerse Passages:
Day 16 Jan. 25 pp. 190-202 Rom 8:31-16:27
Day 17 Jan. 26 pp. 203-214 Phm; Col 1:1-4-18
Day 18 Jan. 27 pp. 215-224 Eph 1:1-6:24
Day 19 Jan. 28 pp. 225-241 Phi 1:1-4:23; 1Tim 1:1-6:21
Day 20 Jan. 29 pp. 243-255 Tit 1:1-3:15; 2Tim 1:1-4:22
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