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. – Philippians 4:7 (NLT)

God’s best for us is that we live at peace. But our world often feels far from peaceful. Much is going on and it can be easy to become troubled, upset, or even afraid.

We have to choose daily to practice peace. Sometimes that means guarding what you watch and hear, so that fear doesn’t build up in your heart. Other times it might mean being aware of who you spend time around so that you don’t become troubled or upset.

Whatever it takes, be on your guard to keep your heart at peace. God wants you to walk in peace even if you’re going through a storm. So look to Him. Spend time reading the Bible and in worship. Really let the presence of God bring peace to your situation.

God’s best for your life is to walk in God’s peace and be able to share that peace with those around you every day.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. – Romans 8:14 (NIV)

Does the idea of being led by God feel overwhelming? Do you struggle with the thought of how to hear God’s voice? These feelings are normal. It can be really hard to feel like you hear from God and to know that what you’re hearing is really God speaking to you and leading you.

The first thing to remember when you’re wanting to be led by God in decision making is that you’re a child of God. According to today’s Bible verse, that means God wants to lead you. So you can rest knowing that God wants to lead you.

Today’s Truth: You can rest knowing God wants to lead you

However, you’ve got to volunteer to be led. God isn’t going to just lead you without your permission. You’ve got to tell Him that you want His guidance and be willing to listen and follow what He’s telling you to do.

Secondly, when you’re listening to God’s guidance always lines up with God’s word. God isn’t going to tell you to do something that doesn’t line up with what the Bible says. So if what you feel like God is leading you to do lines up with scripture, then you know it’s from God.

God wants to lead you into good decisions. He wants to guide you. You just have to choose to follow his leading and rest, knowing that He’s going to show you what to do.

If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” – Esther 4:14 (NLT)

Esther was amazing, wasn’t she? It can be really easy to read her accounts in the Bible and long to do something big for God. But then you wonder, how do I start? And what should I do?

We can see from the life of Esther that she just did what she saw she could do. She saw that she could go talk to the king about the situation that the Jews were facing. And Esther did it, even though she was a little nervous about it.

The same is true for you. Often doing something BIG for God starts by doing something SMALL you can see to do. Big things don’t always start big. They start as you are willing to take one little step that you can see in front of you.

That’s what Esther did. She did what she could see to do in her life to help her people. And that small thing (talking to the king) turned into the exact thing her people needed to be rescued.

So today, don’t be discouraged if what you see to do in front of you looks small. Just do the step you see to do. As you do, the small thing turns often turns into a big thing.

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. – Galatians 6:7 (NIV)

If we’re not careful, we will spend lots of time seeking external things to make our flesh happy. It’s easy to value material things over the people around us. Or put a priority on how we look over developing a relationship with God.

When we live to fulfill our own flesh’s happiness, it’s like we’re feeding a need that can never be met. You never obtain happiness by feeding your flesh.

Instead, consider what you’re sowing each day. Are you sowing seeds of kindness to those around you who are hurting? Do you choose to seek friendships with others over obtaining yet another material thing?

The Bible tells us that we will harvest what we plant. We might not see it today or tomorrow, but the seeds we plant make a difference in our future.

So today, take a realistic look at the seeds you’re planting. Are they seeds that will produce a good harvest in the future?

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

Doesn’t it make you feel good that God cares for you? Each time I read this verse, I’m just overwhelmed by the fact that God loves me. He doesn’t have to love me. I haven’t done anything to deserve His love, and yet He loves me.

And not only does He love me, but He cares about the things that worry and trouble me. That means that anytime day or night, I can go to God and cast my anxiety on Him.

I can tell Him about the things that worry and upset me, and then know that He’s always ready to help me, and hear me when I call out to Him.

So today, don’t be afraid to give your worries to God. Know that He cares for you, and wants to take good care of you.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. – Jude 1:3 (NIV)

The other day, I happened to see my town’s high school track team practicing. Each person on the team was working hard, running, stretching, and doing exercises to get ready for the upcoming track meets.

The amazing thing is, they probably won’t compete for another month or two. And yet, every day, they’re preparing for the event coming up so that they can give it their all.

Today’s Bible verse talks about contending for the faith. The idea of contending in this verse is similar to how athletes practice, train and work out to get ready for a competition. The athletes prepare, and we as Christians should prepare as well.

As Christians, we should know what we believe and why we believe it. That helps us stand firm when our faith is questioned by those around us. So today, spend some time searching. Begin to find out what you believe and why you believe it. And expect that you’ll experience good things as you do.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. – James 5:15 (NIV)

When I was 14 years old, my grandma died from cancer. It was one of the hardest things I had gone through in my life up until that point. I had prayed and prayed for her, just like today’s Bible verse describes.

And yet, she died. It shook my faith.

What do we do when we face a result in our lives that seems to go against what we see in the Bible? How do we wrestle with the questions that challenge our faith? (Read more here)

First of all, we have to believe the Bible is true. And that even if we get results that seem different than what we see in the Bible, that doesn’t stop the Bible from being true.

For example, now that some years have passed, and I have more perspective on the situation, I realize that my grandma had already lived a full life. She had been fighting cancer for a long time, and she was really tired. She probably simply choose to go be with Jesus instead of continuing the fight here on earth.

So for my situation, my grandma’s choice was to go be with Jesus. And even though I selfishly wanted her to stay here on earth with me, she got to go and enjoy her reward in heaven.

The Bible is always true. It doesn’t matter if circumstances or situations seem otherwise, we have to base our faith firmly and God’s word and know that the Bible is always true.

There will be more to come on this topic next week…