Title: Practical Living for Gaining Inner Peace / Topic: Balanced Living

Today's Reading: Philippians 1; Philippians 2; Philippians 3; Philippians 4

Scripture: Philippians 4:6. 7, 9
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Observation/Application: These verses stood out to me in my devotional time today. I don't think of myself as an anxious person but the Holy Spirit brought to mind several areas where I have not been fully trusting God, and as a result have not been resting in the peace that is ours if we will follow the practical advice in these verses. I need to lose all my worries, anxiety about various situations and people, and “concerns” (concerns sounds so much more spiritual than worry or anxiety) by bringing all these to God in prayer and asking him to take care of them. I present these petitions to God with thanksgiving, knowing that he is able to do abundantly above all I could ask or think. Thanksgiving is important because it precludes worry and establishes confidence in the Lord that he will do what is right and best. The result this process is an inner peace that transcends my understanding. It guards my heart (the seat of my emotions) and my mind (the well-spring of my intellect and attitudes) from stress and the enemy's lies and distractions. Verse 9 speaks again of peace and links it to putting into practice all that I learn from God's Word and from human teachers that are instructing me in spiritual truth. Without implementation, all instruction is useless.

Prayer: My dear, precious, gracious Heavenly Father, I love you so much! You give me such wonderful gifts. Everyone wants inner peace and happiness and you tell me exactly how I can have it. Help me to put into practice all of your teaching so that my life will be full to overflowing and so that I can refresh others and demonstrate to them by example your superior power, love and blessings.
This I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.