WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Scripture: Philippians 4:4-9

Philippians 4:4-9 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” Here we find an outline of what develops and releases the peace of God in our life. We are told to lay aside anxiety and come before the Lord with prayers and thanksgiving and that God’s peace will come to us as a gift! As we walk in the Spirit the peace of God envelopes us. Finally we renew our mind with the truth of God’s Word. We think on that which is true, noble just, pure and lovely. We focus on the things that are virtuous and praiseworthy. We follow the apostles in how we conduct ourselves and what we say. The message of Paul is, ‘If you want the life I live, the peace of God will be with you.’ It is a grace gift and it comes as a fruit of renewing our mind. It was bought by the Blood of Christ and it belongs to us. It is a commodity that is available to live in that we can also impart to others! When we walk in it, we reign in life. In this place of peace we don’t worry about being visited by evil or adversity, because God has a way through and out of evil. It may take 30 years but God will get us there. This will probably be a much longer process than most of us envision. That is why we may find ourselves derailed in frustration. Through this frustration, the worst thing we can do is believe the lies of the enemy which can cause us to abandon or run from the process. Consequently in doing this we never end up walking out the full measure of peace and confidence that God has for us. Paul found that measure of peace and then he lived it everywhere he went. He survived adversity of unspeakable magnitude. Can we survive adversity? We sure can! We can survive it being frustrated and mad at God even abandoning the process or we can walk through it with peace and eventually find the resolution. Let’s go for the peace and the resolution wholeheartedly and the journey will be a whole lot more productive and victorious than the adversarial approach.