Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (33 page)

C
olossians 3:15 says to let the peace from Christ “rule (act as umpire continually)” in our hearts. The presence of peace helps us decide and settle with finality all questions that arise in our minds. If you let the Word have its home in your heart and mind, it will give you insight
and
intelligence
and
wisdom (see v. 16). You won’t have to wonder,
“Should I or shouldn’t I? I don’t know if it’s right. I don’t know what to do.”
If you are a disciple of Christ, He has called you to follow peace.

Dave, my husband, and I were trying to make a decision on a large purchase we needed to make. We called some of our board members from the ministry and presented the need to them, asking,
“What do you think?”
They all gave their opinions, but as I listened to them, I knew suddenly that I didn’t have peace about going forward with the plan. We have learned by experience to wait if we don’t have peace for something. Dave and I agreed to wait on God to give us all peace before we proceeded.

Following the Lord of peace may mean that you have to make some adjustments in your life. You may not be able to do everything your
friends do. You may not be able to buy everything you want. You may not be able to have something just because a friend or a sister or a brother has one. You may have to wait. But I believe peace is the most important, the most valuable thing we can have. If we follow peace, we will end up living holy lives and thoroughly enjoying them.

S
atan tries to cause trouble in virtually every area of our lives. He does not attack every area at one time, but eventually he gets to everything. He brings inconveniences of every kind, and it seems the right thing never happens at the right time. Problems never come when we are ready to deal with them. He may attack people in their finances, relationships, physical health, mind, emotions, jobs, neighborhoods, or projects.

We recently invited four different men from four different parts of the country to be guests on our television show. These men were all involved in the restoration of morality in America. They were all praying for revival. Dave and I are also very interested in this, and we wanted to impact the nation with some special programming along these lines.

Two of the four men had major delays with their flights: one man’s flight was entirely canceled and he was very late, and another sat on the runway for two and a half hours without any real explanation from
the airline except that it was raining. What was Satan trying to do? He didn’t want them to come at all, but if they were going to come, he wanted them to be upset when they arrived.

Two guest speakers out of four having this type of trouble is more than coincidence. Satan sets us up to get us upset! He wants to steal our peace because our power is connected to it. I have learned that my ministry does not have much effect if I am not ministering from a heart of peace, so I strive to stay in peace at all times. Satan tries to steal my peace, and with God’s help, I try to keep it.

Paul said he had learned to be content (satisfied to the point where he was not disquieted or disturbed). It sounds to me as if he always kept his peace, no matter what was going on in his life. This is an example we should seek to follow.

P
robably one of the greatest ways we show our trust in God is by living life one day at a time. We prove our confidence in Him by enjoying today and not letting the concern of tomorrow interfere. It made a big change in my life when I began to gain insight from the Holy Spirit on this problem of dreading things. This truth about living one day at a time greatly increased my peace and joy, and it will do the same thing for you.

I learned that it really was not the event I was facing that was so
bad—it was dreading it that made it bad. Our attitudes do make all the difference in the world. Learn to approach life with an “I can do whatever I need to do through Christ” attitude. Don’t say that you hate things like driving to work in traffic, going to the grocery store, cleaning the house, doing laundry, changing the oil in the car, or cutting the grass. These chores are all part of life, and it is useless to dread them.

Don’t let the events of life dictate your level of joy. It is the joy of the Lord that is your strength. Be joyful that you are going to heaven; be grateful that you have someone who always loves you, no matter what. Look at and concentrate on what you
do
have, not what you
don’t
have.

Everyone has to attend to some unpleasant details in life. Don’t dread them, but learn how valuable God’s peace is in those circumstances.

Some things are certainly more naturally enjoyable and easier to do than others, but that does not mean we cannot purposely choose to enjoy the other less enjoyable tasks. We can choose to have attitudes of joy and peace. Usually, if we don’t feel like doing something, we automatically assume we cannot enjoy it or have peace during that time, but that is a deception. We grow spiritually when we do difficult things with a good attitude.

A
t times it seems like the whole world lives in fear and dread, but God’s children should not. We are to behave differently from the people of the world; we should let our light shine.

Just being positive in a negative circumstance is a way to do this. The world will notice when we are stable in every kind of situation. Make up your mind right now that all of life does not need to make you feel good in order for you to face it with peace and joy. Make a decision that you will not dread anything you have to do. Do it all with a thankful attitude.

I never considered driving down the street to get a cup of coffee to be a huge privilege until after I had been hospitalized with breast cancer and had surgery. When I was released, I asked my husband to take me out for a coffee and a drive through a local park. It was amazing how much joy I felt. I was doing a very simple thing that was previously available to me every day, yet I had never seen it as a privilege.

Our son went on an outreach with a team of people who go visit the homeless each Friday evening, and after helping in this ministry, he was appalled at himself for the things he had murmured about in the past once he saw, by comparison, how some people were living. We would all feel exactly the same way. Those without a place to live would love to have a house to clean, while we dread cleaning ours. They would delight in having a car to drive, even an old one, while we complain about needing to wash ours or take it in for an oil change.

The point is, most of the time we lose sight of how blessed we are, but we should work at keeping it in the front of our thinking. Be thankful you can do anything in Christ, and don’t dread things you have to do.

R
ecently a group of pastors asked me a question: Besides God Himself, what one thing had helped me get from where I started in ministry to the level of success I currently enjoy? I immediately said,
“I refused to give up!”
There were thousands of times when I felt like giving up, thought about giving up, and was tempted to give up, but I always pressed on.

Don’t let life defeat you. Face it with boldness and courage, and declare that you will enjoy every aspect of it. You can do that because you have the awesome power of God dwelling in you. God is never frustrated and unhappy. He always has peace and joy, and since He lives in us and we live in Him, surely we can attain the same thing.

When you are in pain, you don’t have to dwell on the pain and let it ruin your day. You can still accomplish what you need to do by God’s grace, and you don’t have to fear and dread that you may feel that same way tomorrow. I have ministered to others many times while I was in pain myself. Whatever we go through, God will always be with us. Choose to believe that Jesus is your Healer and that His healing power is working in your body right now!

When tempted to worry, Dave always says,
“I am not impressed.”
He believes we should be more impressed by God’s Word than our problems. He says if we don’t get
impressed
, we won’t get
depressed
, then
oppressed
, and ultimately perhaps even
possessed
by our difficulties.

No matter what you are facing right now, God has a great life planned for you. It includes prosperity and progress in every area of
life. It includes great peace, unspeakable joy, and every good thing you can imagine. Refuse to settle for anything less than God’s best for you!

O
ne year a man I worked for was helping me do my income tax. When he observed that we gave 10 percent of our income to the church each year, he promptly told me we were giving too much, that it was not necessary, and we should stop. He was looking at our giving in the natural and could find no reason why we would want to do such a thing. We, however, were looking at it according to our knowledge of God’s Word. We understood spiritually what we were doing and believed that if we gave, God would always take care of us.

I tried to explain God’s principles on sowing and reaping to him, but he insisted that even if we wanted to give, it did not need to be that much, especially since we didn’t have an abundance left over after giving to the church and paying our bills. This is an example of a natural man not understanding the spiritual man. First Corinthians 2:14 explains that the natural man cannot understand spiritual things, because they must be spiritually discerned to do so. This simply means that spiritual things take place in the born-again spirit of the inner man, not in the natural mind.

This is the reason people who depend on their intellect have a difficult time believing in God. They don’t see Him, they don’t feel Him, and many of His principles don’t make sense to their natural minds. Naturally speaking, what sense does it make to tell people that they will have increase if they give away some of their money? It makes no sense at all.

The Bible says that the first will be last, and the last will be first. That makes no sense to my mind, but I know by spiritual understanding that it means when we try to push ourselves forward into first place, we will end up last. When we wait on God to promote us, even if we start out last, we will end up right where we are supposed to be.

W
henever I return home from ministering at conferences, I revitalize myself by abiding in Jesus. I pray, meditate on His Word, and spend time with Him. I say,
“Thank You, Lord, for strengthening and refueling me. I need You, Jesus. I can’t do anything without You.”

I know I must abide in Him if I want to bear good fruit. Abiding replenishes the energy I use in my conferences. For many years I ministered at my conferences, returned home, and went right back to the office or out on another trip without spending the time I needed with the Lord. When I did, I usually ended up worn-out, depressed, crying, and wanting to quit.

If we drive our cars without filling up the tanks, we ultimately run out of gasoline and break down. We can do the same thing as individuals. We will break down mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if we don’t stay full of Jesus by abiding in Him.

Dave and I have developed the habit of spending time each morning with the Lord by praying, reading, meditating, pondering, writing, resting, trusting, and abiding in Him. Sometimes people “pick on” us, and when they do, we want them to be able to pick good fruit. By the time I face my family or work responsibilities, I’m full of good fruit in case anybody has a need. I encourage you to develop what I like to call the “God Habit.” Need time with Him more than you need anything else, and everything else will fall into place and work much better.