“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 NLT Is it swirling with craziness in your house, in your head, like it is in mine right…
Every November I declare, “This Christmas is going to be different.” Before December arrives, nearly every weekend in my calendar is scribbled with parties, baking, shopping, and holiday events. There’s little time left to plug in Christmas pictures, greeting cards, decorations, cookies, crafts, and that annual Jingle Bell Run. Why must it be this way…
Giving thanks takes practice. It’s easy to be thankful when things are going well, but when we learn to be thankful during even the tough times, God grants us the peace we need to endure the trial. In painful moments, it’s a choice to consciously bend our thoughts away from resentment and remind ourselves that…
Are you giving fear permission to access the promises God has made? There’s an enemy of our souls, and he’d love nothing more than a permanent place to filter every plan God prepared for you. Fear is crippling. Fear causes us to react irrationally. Fear drives a wedge between our relationships. Today, we see natural…
When you allow other people to be right, it doesn’t make you wrong. It makes you a peacemaker. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18) Peace is a place where God wants us to live. We’re not put on this earth to straighten everybody out. Peace is the…
Finding peace is simply making it a priority. It’s a choice we have to make in our circumstances. When we set our minds on peace, everything else will organize around it. Colossians 3:15 reminds us to ‘let the peace of Christ rule our hearts’. Peace is to lead our lives and be the director of…
Minutes pass slowly as I breathe in the gentle air of Heaven. The resistance in life that tugs on every string I try to pull has frustrated my once settled soul. All these outward cravings clouding the inward search are a clue that my living has become a cover-up to the cries beneath what can…
We’re still a couple of days away from Christmas, and I have yet to board a plane to be with family, yet somehow we’ve already found the short fuses and tension stretching our patience with each other. Can you relate? The problems may have nothing to do with you except that you’re within proximity of…
Everything seems urgent at this time of year, and expectations tell us all the going and doing is very important. The calendar controls our time, but we’re so overwhelmed that we can’t even realize this pressure is the pulse driving whether we keep up or stay ahead. ‘Rush’ repurposes peace into a chaotic Christmas story…
The Dream Under the covers, there I was sleeping peacefully when a knock came at the door. One knock turned into incessant knocking. With pillows now smooshing my face into the sheets, it was evident I had been turning over in an attempt to sleep off the obnoxious noise. But now the neighborly knocks shifted…