And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Phil 4:7 (ESV)

Life is full of unexpected things. Perhaps you didn’t see your parent’s divorce coming or maybe a loved one died. And often in the midst of troubles like these, it’s easy to lose your peace.

It’s easy in trouble to lose your peace and focus on the trouble instead of Jesus.

Jesus will get you through the storm that you’re facing. If you’ll choose to focus on Him and let Him lead and guide you, you’ll come through the storm stronger and your faith will be strengthened.

So today, realize that you can have peace in a storm. You might be facing something unexpected, but Jesus is right there with you. He’s ready and able to help you each step of the way.

Go to Him and get the help and strength you need to face each day. Walk in His peace and see Him help you through the storm!

And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. – 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NLT)

God has provided us with so many blessings. It’s easy to forget how good he’s been to us as we’re living our lives, and often get caught up in all the busyness of each day. One of the great blessings we’ve been given is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit teaches us and shows us things from God’s word. Have you ever woken up at night, and been thinking about a scripture? Then maybe you see something different about that scripture then you’ve ever seen before? If so, that’s the Holy Spirit. He’s leading you as you study scripture and showing you wonderful things about what God has given us.

However, if you haven’t, don’t worry. The Holy Spirit is there for us all to learn from. Begin to expect to be led as you read your Bible. When you read scripture, get quiet and listen. That thought, or prompting as you read is often Him leading you.

Today’s Truth: Ask the Holy Spirit to Lead You as You Read the Bible.

Get into God’s word and then ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Ask Him to show you and teach you things from the Bible, and begin to realize how much fun it can be to read and learn from God’s word!

That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. – 1 Timothy 4:10 (NIV)

Think for a minute what your hope is in? Is it getting a scholarship to a good college? Is it finding a relationship with someone? What thing in your life is stopping your happiness? What thing do you feel needs to change so that you can really begin enjoying life?

Your answers to questions like those are important. They show you where you’re basing your happiness. Often, we place our happiness in having a relationship or looking forward to something in the future. The problem with putting all our happiness in those things is that things can happen.

Circumstances could change and you might not get the scholarship you were working toward. You might not end up finding that right relationship. What then? If all your happiness is tied up in events or relationships at some point you’re going to be let down.

Instead, consider focusing your happiness on something that doesn’t change, Jesus. Let Jesus be the source of your joy on a daily basis. Choose to be happy each day regardless of the circumstances around you. You can’t always control your circumstances, but you can choose to be happy. So decide to place your hope in Jesus.

Today’s Truth: Put Your Hope in Jesus

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. – Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Hopefully, you’ve been having some fun this summer. From sporting events to spending some time in the sun, or at the pool, summer can be a fun time.

While you’re having fun, make sure you take some time this summer to develop your relationship with Jesus. Summer is a great time to do that. You have some more time while you’re not in your classes, and you can spend some of that extra time getting to know Jesus better.

It can be tempting to just enjoy a little more TV, or social media time, however, spending all our free time on those things can often keep you from spending time reading your Bible or in prayer.

Part of being a disciple of Jesus involves us denying ourselves by not watching that extra movie, and following Jesus by spending time in the Word. This summer, challenge yourself to not only relax and enjoy but to spend some time learning to become a disciple of Jesus and growing in your walk with God.

Today’s Truth: Choose to become a disciple this summer and challenge yourself to spend time in God’s Word.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. – Romans 3:23 (NLT)

We can often get caught up in the busyness of life that we don’t take time to recall all the good things Jesus has done for us. Being thankful and realizing the goodness of God is really important for us, and brings us joy and fulfillment.

Today’s Bible verse reminds us that we all have sinned. We’ve all lied. Each of us has done things that are not right and those sins cause us to fall short of God’s standard.

And as hard as we try to do good and be right, we can’t in our own strength. Continually we mess up and need God’s forgiveness.

That’s why knowing Jesus is so amazing. Because we couldn’t live good enough lives. We couldn’t do enough good to meet God’s standard. We deserved hell but got grace. That’s the goodness of God. It met us where we were when we least deserved it.

So today, take some time out of your busy life to thank God. Realize that you didn’t deserve what God gave you and thank Him today for His goodness in reaching out to you!

Today’s Truth: The goodness of God meets us where we least deserve it.