Living The Good Life

REFERENCE: Philippians 4:6-9 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.

Observation: How to live an (inwardly) peaceful life:

1.    Decide not to worry about anything. Substitute prayer for worry every time anxiety shows up. Let God know what you need and then refuse to worry about it.

2.    Be thankful!!!! Every day, we should list what we are thankful for every day before the Lord. This keeps us focused on what we have and are blessed with instead of what we don’t have.

3.    Think about the right things. What do you let into your mind? What does it feast on? Instead of all the trash think on good and admirable things. A positive thought life leads to a positive life.

4.    Do what you know is the right thing to do. When we are violating our own conscience we experience stress and anxiety. When we live in concert with our values that we feel at peace and integrated.

Application/Confession: I worry way too much. I try to be thankful. I am learning to discipline my thinking. I certainly need God’s help.

PRAYER: Help me Lord to live in Your peace.