Great Peace

All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace.

In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. Isaiah 54:13-14

Did you know that the words the prophet Isaiah wrote are describing today? He's talking about us, God's children! We have been given great peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been established through His righteousness and terror shall now be far removed!

I read these verses about a week ago and after meditating on them and reciting them over and over I realized that if God has promised me such great peace then I shouldn't have to deal with anxiety. Why was I dealing with such horrible anxiety when God's Word told me that I didn't need to have any anxiety at all?

We all have fears and anxiety every once in a while but it surely is NOT from God! God has given us peace and security through His son Jesus Christ. So that no matter what happens in our life, or around us in this world, we still have been given great peace! I don't know about you but these promises have caused a huge breakthrough in my own life.

God's Word is so powerful that it can tear down anxiety when it comes. Just the other night when anxiety seemed to be knocking on my door, I remembered these verses and was determined to make His Word my reality rather than the worry. Within seconds of remembering these verses, the anxiety seemed to flee from my presence.

Here is the Amplified translations of the same two verses:
And all your [spiritual] children shall be disciples [taught by the Lord and obedient to His will], and great shall be the peace and undisturbed composure of your children.

You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God's will and order): you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Isaiah 57:19 says Peace, peace to him who is far off [both to Jew and Gentile] and to him who is near! says the Lord; I create the fruit of his lips, and I will heal him [make his lips blossom anew with speech in thankful praise].

God wants His children to have great peace! So next time anxiety comes knocking at your door, combat it with God's promises. Speak His Word to your anxiety, think of good, excellent and praisworthy things and the "God of peace (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you." (Philippians 4:9)

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because He commits himself to You, leans on You and hopes confidently in You.

So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]. Isaiah 26:3-4

I hope everyone had a blessed and peaceful Christmas! Now let's make 2012 and forever after, years of great peace!

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

key ingredient to beating anxiety... four

I never truly understood how my own thoughts affected my life until I read what God’s Word said about a person’s thought life. Can you remember what His Word tells us; what we need to think about? If not keep reading because the next key ingredient to beating anxiety is Thinking like God!

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:4-8

You might be thinking, yes, I know these verses but what does it have to do with beating anxiety? Paul tells us not to be anxious about anything but to pray to God with joy and thanksgiving and the peace of God will guard our hearts AND minds in Christ Jesus. He says to think of anything that is excellent, lovely, commendable, honorable, or worthy of praise. We are not to have anxious thoughts and are to think of good things. By keeping our minds on God’s Word, He is able to keep us in perfect peace!

I used to have a lot of trouble with thoughts of anxiety and thoughts of the worst things imaginable happening, and sometimes I still do. Sometimes bad and anxious thoughts just come and it’s hard to think of good and praiseworthy things during those moments of anxiety. So what then? What do we do when those anxious thoughts seem to consume us and we end up playing out the worst case scenario in our minds?

Paul again says to take every thought captive to Christ.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:5

When thoughts of anxiety do come, take them captive and lay them at the feet of Jesus. Say to Him, “Here are these thoughts again Lord. I cannot get rid of them on my own but You can. I take these thoughts captive and give them to You.”

By giving these thoughts to Christ He is able to help you and transform you. He is able to transform your thought life. I’m not really sure how He does it, but I know that He can and will make your thoughts pure but you must be reading God’s Word as well. Without His Word you can’t meditate on what God says is good, pure and praiseworthy. Don’t forget Key Ingredient 2 and 3!

Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be made new in the attitude of our minds.

Colossians 3:1-2 says “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things.

And of course Romans 12:2, which I have mentioned earlier, says that we are to renew our minds and not to conform to this world.

This world is full of anxiety; God’s Kingdom has no fear.

We are not of this world! We have God’s Spirit! We do not need to live according to this world because God wants us to live in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:6); He wants us to set on minds on Him (Colossians 3:1-2), and He wants to have our minds be made brand new so that anxiety is a thing of the past!

We all must meditate on God’s Word, take those anxious and troubling thoughts captive to Jesus, and focus our sight on things above. Surrender your minds to God and allow Him to transform you into the new creation Christ has made you to be.

This ingredient to beating anxiety is crucial. I never truly understood how my thoughts affected me until God opened my eyes to the ways in which my thoughts had kept me in bondage for way too long. I’m continually trying to surrender this part of my life to Him and I see that the more I do it the easier it becomes and the more God can transform my thoughts.

Don’t forget to keep adding in ALL of the ingredients. You must have all of them in order to get the full benefit. And of course prayer is needed throughout all of it. I like to think of prayer as the mixer. We couldn’t make a cake without a mixer right? It's the same with prayer. You wouldn’t eat just the eggs or flour part of the cake and expect it to be delicious, right? So it is with all of these ingredients. You can’t have one without the other. Also please remember that everyone is different. You may need more times of praise and prayer or you may need to renew your mind more in order to believe God. What works for me may look different for you. Keep this in mind as you continue on your journey to beating anxiety. (And remember this, doctors can guide you as well if your anxiety is too troubling for you to handle, but as long as you keep God’s Word in your midst then you can do all things! Never stop reading and walking with Him even if some people do need the guidance of a doctor.)

Renewing our thoughts takes time. It takes endurance, patience and a right attitude. You can do it with Him though! With God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26 and Genesis 18:14) Let's continue to renew our minds so we can think like God!

I hope this ingredient was as helpful to you as it was for me. God can renew your mind! He can and He will! Just believe! (Ingredient 1)

Keep checking back for more key ingredients.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen

His faithfulness

Finals are now over and I have time to actually post on this blog! I meant to post earlier but kept getting distracted and never got around to it until today. I'm just glad to be able to share something with you all now that really gave me insight and blessing after I read it.

Psalm 91 is one of my favorite Psalms throughtout all five books. It talks of God's watchfulness and grace upon those who make Him their dwelling.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91:1

Our God saves; He takes care of His children and asks that they trust in Him. Trusting God is so crucial in our walk with Him and it's something that He's helping me to undertsand more and more. Proverbs 3:5-6 has become a great help for me in all areas of my life. The revelation given in those two verses are worth meditating on.

Psalm 91 has always been a comofort as well, especially when I'm dealing with fear. I see His goodness displayed verse after verse and just recently when I read that Psalm, I was given new insight and felt myself drawn to verse 4. Two words came alive to me: "His faithfulness." What about His faithfulness?

His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart

Did you get that? If you're like me then you probably read over that verse lots of times without actually comprehending those words. I've believed the lie that my worrying, my well laid plans and routines have actually benefited me and kept trouble from happening. But that's just not true. Have you believed the lie that worrying will actually prevent things from happening? If you have I hope that you ask God to illuminate verse 4 in Psalm 91 next time you read it.

His faithfulness is what keeps me safe. His faithfulness is my shield and rampart! Not my worrying or well laid plans. I also know that if anything ever did happen to me or my family and friends, it's His faithfulness that will get us all through and protect everyone. How amazing is that?!

Now don't get me wrong, we will have trouble in this world. Our world is broken and in desperate need of saving so it's only likely that trouble will occur at some point or another. But knowing that His faithfulness is what protects me and is my shield and rampart gives me great assurance and comfort.

We serve an amazing God who is faithful. He gives us all that we need and loves us with a love that none of us can comphrehend. So whether or not trouble comes along in the form of financial trouble, a rude co-worker, persecution or a time of loss and sadness, know that He is faithful and will always be your shield. Just like a shepard leading his sheep, so our Lord is our great Shepard Who goes ahead of us and watches out for our safety. And no matter what, He will never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)

Thank you Heavenly Father for your faithfulness!

Happy Advent season and Merry Christmas!

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen