Peace In A Crazy World

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 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. (Philippians 4:4-8 NKJV)

The above passage from Philippians is one of my favorite in all of Scripture. My wife tells me that I am very patient in the things which matter most, but the things which do not matter, I am very impatient. I hate getting stuck behind a slow driver!!! Then there is worry, which is also something I must always constantly do battle with. All of us believers face many things in our lives which may drive us crazy, such as arguments with those close to us. Then there is the issue of divisions in the church for various reasons. If you read the above passage in context with Philippians chapter four, it gives us a biblical procedure for attaining unity in the church. Beyond this, one may also draw application into many areas of our lives if we would only apply it more deeply. If things have you down, for what ever reason, count your blessings. If you are fighting with a loved one, write out a list of the things you love about that person. While we do not neglect things which are troubling, our focus must always be on the Lord and the things which are good. We should also always rejoice, be gentle, be patient, and pray always; then we receive His promise. What is His promise? It is the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

I will not be writing a post next week as I am blessed to spend some precious time with loved ones. Take care and God bless.

Only Good Gifts

Photo Credit: Picdream / Pixabay

⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:9-13 NKJV)

God’s desire is that we come to Him boldly, asking, seeking and knocking for God’s good gifts. When we call upon the Lord and He delays His answer, we should not give up, but be persistent in our prayers.  One might not know why the Lord has yet to answer, but we must continue asking, seeking and knocking. If a reluctant parent will meet the needs of his or her children, how much more would our Heavenly Father meet the needs of His children? The beautiful thing is, the more we continue in prayer, the more our prayers will align up with the will of God. As we pray in agreement with God, that is when we will receive an answer to prayer. Because we continue looking, we will find and the door will be opened to us. He will not give any of His children something which will deceive or harm them, but only good gifts. The best of gifts is the Holy Spirit, which He gave to believers at Pentecost. Today all believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit at salvation, so let us be led by Him. (See Eph. 1:13, and Romans 8:9, 14) When we are led by the Holy Spirit, we will abide in Jesus. We must remember what Jesus said, “… He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit...” (John 15:5b) Oh how precious this fruit is.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)

I do not know about you, my friend, but I want to bear much more of these fruits in my life.

First Things First

 ¹ Give ear to my words, O LORD,
    Consider my meditation.
 ² Give heed to the voice of my cry,
   My King and my God,
   For to You I will pray.
 ³ My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD;
    In the morning I will direct it to You,
    And I will look up. 

    (Psalm 5:1-3 NKJV)

Yes I know, there are many times one might wake up in the morning running. We live busy lives, but there is something special about meeting with God first thing in the morning. I find there is a sweetness and peace when I turn to the Lord first thing in the morning. However, when I am off to the races before my time with God, something is amiss. It is like going into battle with no armor.

In Jesus Name

Photo Credit: Image Base

I remember back when I was a baby Christian I still played the lottery on a regular basis. I use to covet winning so we could pay off debts and retire. My thoughts were “if we could just win the lottery everything would be great.” One day my late wife said to me “I started praying that if He lets us win we would give Him half.” I thought that was a good idea except I was not too crazy about giving the half part of it. Anyway I started praying the same prayer and the Lord answered my prayer. No, I did not win the lottery. Instead He said “I want you to stop playing the lottery; you are not going to win. Not only that you are coveting what is not yours and I want you to trust Me.”


Many times we either pray a prayer or do something “In Jesus Name,” when in fact it is not. Matthew makes it quite clear just because we say “In Jesus Name” it not necessarily is.

22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:22-23 NKJV)

In my above example was I praying in Jesus Name or my name?

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15 NKJV)

13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14 NKJV)


For our prayer to be in “Jesus Name” it must be according to His will or we are praying according to “our” will. When we devote our time to getting to know God through His Word we learn what His will is. As our relationship with Him grows we begin to develop the same will He has and we pray accordingly. Jesus gave us a wonderful example on how to pray:


5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

(Matthew 6:5-13)

In verse 10 it reads “Your will be done…” We can narrow it down to “His will be done in me.” Just as Jesus prayed in the garden “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done,” we ought to pray likewise. That is, His will be done.

Pray Without Ceasing

With the death of two people in my life recently, one considers the eternal a whole lot more. Oh it is so, so important to draw closer to Jesus and live life to bring Him glory. So much of the time I think about the here and now wanting a problem free life. I want my comfort, my happiness and my peace. .. I seek to secure my future while at the same time wanting some fun. These things are not necessarily bad in their proper place, but it is most important to have our focus both upward and outward more so than inward. Something the Lord is laying on my heart is to pray more. Yes, I pray every morning and at other times. But Jesus saved me for a purpose. He saved me to do good works. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” *(Ephesians 2:10) Prayer is one of them good works He wants His children doing. Not only that, but an extremely important good work. The day is coming when I will stand before Jesus. I know I am saved, but I want to hear the words ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ (Matt 25:21) What I do not want is to get into heaven and see everything burnt up. "If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Cor 3:15) I realize I cannot earn God’s favor or His love for “we are all like an unclean thing, And all righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6) Not only that, I already have His love and Jesus has applied His righteousness to my account. But the work He has given each and every one of us is so vitally important.

The world is full of hurting people and many are perishing without Jesus. Believers need our prayers too. I live in a country where many people want to throw Jesus out. Evil and sin is abounding. There are so many things one could be praying for and action to be taken as the Lord leads. I cannot solve all the world’s problems, but I sure can pray and be a brighter light for Jesus.


If you have a few minutes, please check out the video I found on You Tube form Open Doors. I am sure it will bless you and it is a perfect example of the power of prayer.