Finding Peace in the Storm (7-9-17)

Help me turn off the noise, Father: the radio, the

television, the imaginary conversations I'm having in

my mind, the texting, the e-mailing, the phone calls.

Help me quiet my mind, quiet my heart, quiet my 

spirit; I need to settle down into your peace. The peace 

of prayer and the peace of being with you are great

healers in my stressed-out life. So I need to stop, wind

down, and let that peace overtake me. I need to make 

it a habit, dear Father, to find my peace in you.

Daily Scripture (7-8-17)

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. -ROMANS 12:18 NIV

Finding Peace in the Storm (7-7-17)

While we can influence others,

we can change only ourselves.

What happens if someone doesn't want to be at peace with me, Father? How do I find peace when they are always at war, stirring up conflict? What do I do? Ignore them? Placate them? Set up boundaries? Escape? There may be no easy answers, but I pray you will give me your grace and wisdom to do what is best for now until you bring relief or show me the way out. Please shelter me from the "bombs" being lobbed at me. May I find peace in your goodness to me.

Finding Peace in the Storm (7-6-17)

Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.

-PSALM 37:37 NIV

The Serenity Prayer that is so often quoted, Father, reminds me to discern between the things I can and cannot change, and it challenges me to focus on the things I can change. It seems that you are showing me that the only things I have the ability to change are those that have to do with myself. It's so hard to give up trying to change other people. You keep reminding me that I lose peace trying, so I know I need to surrender my will to yours. Let peace be found in seeing the changes you make in my life as I focus on following you.

Finding Peace in the Storm (7-5-17)

The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

-ROMANS 8:6 NIV

Lord, you are teaching me that finding peace requires me to seek it out-to look for and pursue peaceful places, peaceful ways, and peaceful relationships. If I make living in peace a priority, I won't miss the chaos, and even when a storm comes my way I will know where to find rest and calm and quietude of spirit. Your Word so often pairs righteousness and peace. To live uprightly is to live in peace. Help me, Lord, choose what is right and true and good today, as I seek to live in your peace.

Loved Ones

Being able to entrust those I love most to your care lifts a burden of worry from my soul, Father. As I bring my concerns for them to you in prayer, it's as if I transfer my responsibility for them over to you, in whom all the help they need truly lies. Help me remember that my worry cannot change one reality in their lives; your daily loving influence on their hearts and minds, however, certainly can. You can see and protect them when I cannot. You can speak to them and call to them in ways I never could. And you love them even more than I do. To find peace of mind, that's something I need to remember as you watch over those closest to my heart.

Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.

-PSALM 119:165 NIV 

FINDING PEACE IN THE STORM

Learning what your Word says has brought so much clarity to my life, so much certainty about how I can live well and enjoy my relationship with you and know how to navigate my relationships with others. Living within your truth brings increased freedom and peace, not constriction and misery, as I used to feel when I was younger. Thank you for opening my understanding and for blessing my experience with the peace of walking in your ways. I love your law--your truth--and when I follow you in it, I never miss a step.