Philippians 4:4-7 tells us:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[a] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.
Let's walk through this for a moment.
The first thing Paul tells us to do is REJOICE. Why do you think that is? Not only rejoice, but rejoice in the Lord, and to do so always.
As much as we'd like to think we're great multitaskers, the truth is that we can really only focus on one thing at a time. If we're busy focusing on rejoicing in the Lord, we don't have the mental capacity to pay attention to our fears, worries, phobias, and problems.
Paul goes on to say that we are to make our requests known, through prayer and with thanksgiving.
Not only are we supposed to rejoice, always, in the Lord, but when we request things of God as we're instructed, we're supposed to also do this with thanksgiving.
So first we make sure that we're rejoicing in the Lord. What does that mean? We rejoice simply in Who God is. He is the Almighty who loves us unconditionally. Who sees every terrible thing we've done, and instead of shunning us for eternity, sent His son to take our place because despite those awful things, He still wanted to keep us forever! Sometimes that's hard to comprehend - especially when we think about the people around us who have done terrible things. Sometimes we'd much rather shun them - but not God.
We can rejoice that God is:
- All powerful
- Loving
- Gracious
- Merciful
- Kind
- Just
- Wise
- Considerate
Plus a host of other wonderful and amazing things!
As we rejoice in all that God is, we are also supposed to come to Him with our requests. This doesn't mean only the prayer requests of those around us; God truly wants you to speak about what's on your own heart. Sure, He already knows - but He wants you to ask Him. It's the simple act of asking Him that creates the relationship He wants with us. There's no relationship there if we simply expect Him to just do everything He knows we want, without ever expressing ourselves to Him. Relationships involve communication.
God not only invites us to request things of Him, but He is instructing us to do so!
We are to make these requests through prayer, and supplication with thanksgiving.
What in the world does that mean?
He doesn't want us to simply lay out a Christmas list of desires. He wants us to be grateful for the things that we have. What's the point in giving us more if we don't appreciate what He's already given us?
Sometimes this can be difficult - but look at what Paul says will happen if we do this: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
WOW! This is the type of peace that we can't even wrap our minds around. Have you ever experienced that? Where you just felt so peaceful and you simply couldn't explain it?
Friend, do you want that kind of peace to wash over your heart and flood your mind? The peace that drowns out all of your worries, makes all of your fears obsolete, and cures every phobia?
The instructions are simple: rejoice in the Lord always, make your requests known to Him through prayer and with thanksgiving. Perhaps not the easiest of instructions, but they are simple.
Here is my challenge to you today: spend a few moments writing down the attributes of God that you can rejoice over. Write down as many as you can think of - feel free to Google some if you need reminders. Put this list up where you can see it and refer to it everyday.
Then write out your requests for God - next to each request, include a reason to be thankful. Ask Him for more of His peace to reign in your heart and mind. He's promised it to you; it's okay to thank Him in advance for it as well as part of your thanksgiving.
I'd love to hear from you. What are some of your favorite attributes of God?
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We've all heard the saying, "Ignorance is bliss."
Although we don't necessarily want to be ignorant, there is something to that.
Have you noticed that the people who are considered conspiracy theorists, or those who tend to be nervous about current events, or people with short tempers, all seem to have one thing in common: they watch a LOT of news.
I'm not saying the news in and of itself is bad. I think we just need to be careful about the types of things our minds and hearts are consuming.
Studies have shown links between playing violent video games and the impact that can have on people's minds, and their intents.
There have also been links between listen to certain types of music, and watching certain types of TV shows.
Granted, I know a good number of people who watch violent TV shows and listen to disheartening music who are still positive, upbeat, happy people. But they're the exception, not the rule. They have also made the choice to BE happy, rather than leave it up to their circumstances to make that decision for them.
Scripture tells us in Philippians 4:8, "Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things."
In 2 Corinthians 10:5, we're told, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Another good verse to remember is, "God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
Those three scriptures are proof enough for me that God has given us every tool we need to CHOOSE what we think about.
What we think about, what we focus on, what we listen to and hear the most, is what shapes everything we do. It determines our beliefs, which determine our actions, which determine our entire lives.
In my Essentially Vibrant group on Facebook, I'm running a 21 Days of Encouragement series with a quote, a journal prompt, and a coordinating essential oil to use. Today's quote is by an unknown author and says,
"Remember - most of your stress comes from the way you respond, not the way life is. Adjust your attitude, and all that extra stress is gone."
What we think about determines our attitude about EVERYTHING.
What we think about comes from what we allow into our hearts and minds - from the news, to TV shows and movies, to music, to even certain people and the types of conversations we have with them.
Something to consider today: how often do you find yourself listening to something that uplifts and encourages you, rather than something negative?
Let me know what the last encouraging thing is that you watched or listened to! If you need some ideas of encouraging TV shows or things to listen to, let me know. I'm here to help!
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In our current social climate, with COVID and riots and now hurricane season approaching, it's easy for us to feel overwhelmed, stressed, exhausted, and just unmotivated. We can sometimes get anxious or depressed when we focus on the things that are troubling us.
One surefire way to turn yourself completely around is to focus outward.
When we take our thoughts away from our own problems and shortcomings, suddenly the world seems a little bit brighter.
A positive outlook is easier to cultivate when we focus on those around us. So how can we practically put this into action?
By doing the simplest of actions: Random Acts of Kindness, affectionately called RAKs.
Not only can these help us to focus on others, but we get a rush of endorphins when we do something nice for someone else, and this can also help us to feel more empowered and in control.
Let's start with RAKs in the home.
- Do someone's chore for them (even a parent doing a child's chore!)
- Leave love notes around, on their pillow, in their bathroom, at their seat in the kitchen
- Bring them a treat from the grocery store
- Make their favorite meal or dessert
- Announce a movie night and have their favorite movie (or one they've been wanting to see) all cued up and ready to go
Here are some ideas for RAKs in the office, for those who aren't working remotely or will be going back to the office eventually:
- Bring in bagels or donuts
- Leave a note of encouragement on their desk
- Bring in an extra cup of coffee from Starbucks
- Buy someone's lunch
- Wash out someone's coffee mug or lunch dish in the breakroom
Need some random ideas for when you're out and about? I have some of those for you too:
- Bake bread or cookies to bring to your neighbor (this is especially great if you don't know them or better if you do but don't like them!)
- Pay for the order behind you in the drive through
- Give someone a sincere compliment instead of just thinking about how much you admire their outfit or hair or whatever
- Leave a substantially larger tip than normal
I know you could easily do an internet search for these, but I wanted to share a few to get you started.
Here's my suggestion: make a list of 5 RAKs that you will do within the next week and as you cross each one off, write the name of the person next to it.
What other Random Acts of Kindness can you think of, or what have you done or had someone do for you that really blessed you?
In the movie Home Alone, as the family is rushing to get everyone in the car to the airport after oversleeping, Frank McAllister makes a comment to Peter McAllister that there's no way they'll ever make the flight. Peter tells Frank to be positive, to which Frank replies, "You be positive. I'll be realistic."
If you've seen the movie, you know they did end up making the flight.
That quote has stuck with me from the first time I saw the movie.
Oftentimes we can confuse pessimism with being realistic. We tell ourselves we're simply choosing to be honest when in fact, we're really just being negative.
We take this tactic when talking about our own attributes, reasoning this is why we don't speak highly of ourselves. We don't want to give ourselves false compliments. There's a huge difference between falsely complimenting ourselves, and having a positive mindset.
In order to have a positive mindset, we don't need to wear rose-colored glasses or ignore the harsh realities about ourselves, our situations, or our world.
What we do need, however, is the determination to not allow anything negative to stand in the path of what we want.
Our words have SO much power.
There's a huge difference between saying, "I hope I can achieve this goal" and "I am going to make this happen!"
It's great to hope. Everyone needs hope. But placing outcomes on our hopes rather than on our actions won't get us anywhere near our goal.
There's a big difference between saying, "I am just not creative" (which may be true in the moment) and "I am going to grow in my creative abilities!"
I'll be honest, this is something that I have had to be very intentional about improving. It's not easy! Positive mindsets don't come naturally to most people. I can almost guarantee you that the people you know who have a positive mindset have worked hard to have it.
If this is something you struggle with and you'd like a little kickstart, I would love for you to join us in our Drops of Blessings Facebook Group on Monday for our FREE 3-day Mindset Challenge!
We'll work together over three days to take a look at how we're currently thinking, and what we can do to flip our mindset switch to the positive setting. We'll explore truth vs. reality, and actionable steps you can take to help you speak truth over every situation.
