Day 301- Peace Guards

📖Daily Reading

Phillipians 4 

🎥 Video  

Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.

 

📝 Reflection 

 Phillipians 4: 6-7 

'Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. '

Ok, God went straight to my enneagram nine Peacemaker heart this morning.  I had an ‘aha’ moment this morning as I was contemplating this beautiful chapter. I have spent my whole life trying to guard my peace, by trying to keep the peace externally. Often this meant ‘going along to get along’, doing things I might not really want to do, put others first, spending energy triangulating and inserting myself into conflict in an effort to broker peace, managing expectations, people pleasing.. Are you exhausted by just reading this?

People who know me might be surprised to learn how much turmoil was happening on the inside. Calm, patient, kind and caring are often words I hear from people about me. This is very flattering and my ego loves to hear them. But not all that helpful when I am trying to change. To become the peace maker that God made me to be means unbecoming the peace keeper that I was trying to be. 

I was peace keeping to guard my peace and it wasn’t working very well. It was creating a lot of chaos internally and externally. Lots of egg shells were building up on the floors of our house and in my life everywhere. When I finally decided I had enough and was tired of being tired and overwhelmed I hit the pause button and decided to take an honest look in the mirror. I had to be the one to change. I was the only one I could control, trying to control and manage other people and their moods, desires, demands, comfort was killing me and it was not helping them. I had to face this truth if I wanted things to change and I wanted to find true peace. 

So Paul gives us some beautiful and real truth here. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done and THEN you will experience peace. Not only that, but that his peace will guard your heart and mind. I imagined a little Athena type figure standing in front of my heart and my mind this morning, it was pretty cool. I don’t have to try in my own strength to guard my peace, I can let his peace guard me and then I will experience a peace that surpasses all understanding!

As if this wasn’t enough, I opened an email from a health coach I subscribe to that I haven’t opened an email from in months. Today ‘for some reason’ I opened it after my prayer time and not only did I open it but I read the whole thing and it was a long one, but look what was waiting or me at the end: 

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, Felecia. - (Phil 4:7)

I love that she even personalized it for her readers!! How cool is that! You can’t make this stuff up. When you are tuned into divine consciousness and the holy spirit you realize that ‘he’ is also tuned into you! He is trying to get our attention everywhere we turn, we have to be open and looking and then you will see. 

Also, before I sign off I want to also talk about the very well known and oft quoted verses 11-13 ’Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. ‘

We christians like to quote the heck out of ‘I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength’. But there is so much more here that needs to be heeded, he says I have ‘learned’ to be content.. We often beat ourselves up for not being content or we tell ourselves we should be content with what we have. That is not what Paul is saying. Paul is an ambitious guy with big dreams and goals, he was not content to just sit on the sidelines or go to a church and preach and be content with that. But he did learn how to be content if he found himself in a position where his agenda was altered or redirected. 

Learning is a process that often happens in the trials and fires of life if we are open to the learning. I imagine he learned by doing and practicing exactly what he preached in this chapter. He asked God to meet his needs and thanked him and then he focused his thoughts on whatever was true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise.

'And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. '

Philippians 4:8-9

 ✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt 

How can you lean into learning and practicing? Can you give your selves grace and space to learn and not 'should' all over yourself? Or expect yourself to just be better because you think you 'know' better but you haven't practiced and learned the better way yet? Can you ask God for what you need and thank him for all that he has done already? Allow His peace to come in and guard your heart and mind.

📖Tomorrows Reading

 Colossians 1

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